Easter in Poland

I thought Christmas was the mother of all holidays, but Easter seems to be right up there. The Poles love Easter, both religious and secular traditions. Of course, being the predominantly Catholic country that Poland is, everyone flocks to church this week (like they do every week – really!). Only this past week, the churches have what I would call a marketplace area. Vendors sell flowers, edible specialties, and the most creative palm creations I have ever seen. They don’t just get a palm branch for Palm Sunday. They have to decorate their Palm. They can be small palms or they can be as large as 15 meters. I’ve never seen anything like it. They are very pretty. Polish people bake a lot during this time of year as I could tell from the crowds in the baking aisle at the store. They bake all kinds of novelties, but the one I have heard the most about is mazurek. It is a cake layered with fruit that is popular this time of year.

Then, of course, spring has arrived and with it what seems egg worship. I think the Germans do this too. You will find all kinds of jajka (egg) décor. Hand painted eggs (very ornate), egg ceramics (hand painted) that serve as candle holders, ceramic egg baskets, egg holders, etc. There’s quite a selection!

Moving on to the secular, you will find lots of chocolate eggs, chocolate eggs with surprises (not just the Kinder eggs), chocolate bunnies, ducks and lambs, baskets with candy, bird houses with candy, nests with candy, etc. The Polish go all out. They have Easter egg hunts like we do as well. On Good Friday, they have large “Way of the Cross” processions through Old Town. For most, it is a holiday. With good reason because everyone seems to make a dash for the grocery store to stock up on food to get them through the weekend since everything shuts down (like at Christmas) on Saturday and will not reopen until Tuesday. I had to engage in my shopping with both kids by myself since Josh was in Africa until Saturday. I was able to get through it by feeding my human vacuum (Mikayla) Cheerios throughout the grocery store. On Easter Eve, people bring baskets of breakfast food (including eggs) to their local churches to have them blessed. The following morning, they feast (more like gorge) on all the food. The tradition is that before beginning the meal you cut pieces of hard boiled eggs and pass them around the table and everyone takes a bite. Instead of breaking bread, they break eggs!

The only minor disappointment for us this year was the fact that there were no white eggs to be found. Only brown ones. We had an egg dyeing kit, but have you ever tried to dye a brown egg? Not exactly the spring like pastel colors we were looking for. The kids enjoyed it irregardless. Next year, we plan to buy actual paint and hand paint our eggs. It may prove to be more fun that way anyway.

Easter Monday is also a holiday. This is one of the things that I love about this country. In the United States, it does not seem that anything stops for any holiday. Even on Christmas, restaurants and entertainment venues open later in the day. People here work very hard and many work more than one job, but during Christmas and Easter, the focus is on family and the promise of hope. It is hard to focus on these things when family members are missing because they have to work or kids skip out family events to go out with their friends. Here it is not a problem. It is forced time off because your employer is closed. A refreshing thought!

Happy Easter to All!