Easter in Poland - Part Deux

I don’t want to jump the gun. Meteorologists, who so far have failed to predict any weather accurately since we got here, are calling for snow next week. However, all signs point to spring. I’ve seen more birds around and some trees are growing flower buds. After a disappointing winter (depending on how you look at it) that included several days of snow showers without the anticipated accumulation, I think we are all ready to ditch the coats and sweaters for some lighter clothes. The weather is warming and changing between occasional showers and beautiful sunny days. Daylight Savings time does not begin until March 30th, but already the sun is setting later than usual.

We have got a busy week coming up leading to Easter. Since there is not a white egg to be found in Poland, we must get creative in our egg decorating. Just dyeing the eggs won’t do – we are painting them this year. I have a feeling that this is where the tradition of pisanki or hand painted eggs in this part of the world is derived from. If you chip away at the paint on one of those beautiful hand-painted eggs, I bet there is a simple brown egg under the paint.

Easter or “Wielkanoc,” as it is known here, is bigger than Christmas in this part of the world and especially here in Poland. While I wrote about this a bit last year and some may be redundant, I have learned more about the local traditions so I thought I would share.

The Poles go all out with their colorful palm creations, religious and secular activities. There are activities in local museums to teach you the art of pisanki and entire sections of large hipermarkets become Easter headquarters selling all kinds of chocolate eggs, animals (stuffed and edible), décor, flowers for arrangements and so on. Dyeing Easter eggs, the Easter bunny and egg hunts are not part of traditional Easter here, but you can see the American influence of such traditions creeping its way into stores. The preschools here (at least the international ones) hold Easter egg hunts for young children.

The holiday gets underway on Palm Sunday. The palms you find here are the most elaborate you will ever see. They are so decorative that people place the dried palms in vases for decoration as we did this year with ours. In some areas of Poland, palm decorating contests take place followed by a live depictions of Jesus' donkey ride into Jerusalem played out while people with their decorated plams line the route. The most well known of these festivals is in the city of Lyse. During the following week, families, usually the women, do some spring cleaning, preparing their homes for the Easter family breakfast on Sunday.

Everything closes on early Saturday afternoon and will not open until Tuesday morning since Easter Monday or “Wet Monday” as it is known here, is also celebrated here - more on that in a second. On Saturday afternoon/evening, families go to church with large decorated baskets filled with foods they will be having at their traditional Easter breakfast. The food is blessed by the priest and the family returns home. On early Sunday morning, the majority of Poles head to their local church for Easter Mass. Then, the entire family including extended family, gathers at someone's home for Easter breakfast. This is unlike what we know of as breakfast. It is more like a brunch because it includes salads and soup, bread, meat dishes, kielbasa, baba (a type of funnel cake) and mazurek (another type of cake). The meal begins by sharing pieces of hard boiled eggs among family members. The rest of the day is spent visiting with family.

That is all followed by "Wet Monday." You may wonder why they call it “wet.” If you venture out on that day, you will likely find out if you are not careful. It is tradition for boys to wake girls early on Easter Monday by pouring a bucket of water over their heads. A variation of this includes “whipping” the girls legs with the decorated Easter palm although that tradition is rarely practiced today and makes absolutely no sense. Supposedly these traditions date back to 750 and the name for the water/whipping action is called “Smigus-Dingus.” In the last century, the tradition turned into more of a courting ritual between unmarried girls and boys. Under the threat of being drenched, girls gave the boys decorated eggs. No eggs and you get splashed. It’s a like some sort of Trick or Treat/Fertility ritual (symbolism of the eggs). A girl who was not targeted for such activities was generally considered to be beznadziejna (hopeless).

Today, the whipping part is no longer as popular and the holiday focuses on mutually attacking everything and everyone brave enough to venture out on this day. Teenagers are the worse, armed with water guns, buckets of water, water balloons, etc. They find it amusing to attack strangers on the street with their water bombs and the like, which is why you either stay indoors or be hypervigilant of your surroundings. Since it is still cold here, being doused with cold water is not very pleasant.

We will be painting Easter eggs throughout the week, especially towards the end since next weekend is a 4 day weekend for the kids. I have lots of egg related activites to keep them busy. Tomorrow, we will have our first Easter egg hunt of the week at the Ambassador's Residence, followed by another egg hunt at Thing 2's preschool later in the week.

Thing 1 is following in his uncle's footsteps and begins T-ball tomorrow with an indoor clinic at his school. Games start in April. Thing 2 seems to be following in my footsteps with her interest in all things musical. We could not pass up the opportunity to take my little musician to see "STOMP" this weekend at Sala Kongresova in the Palace of Culture and Science. We think this is the perfect show for a child who turns everything she finds into a drum. We think that even Thing 1 will find it interesting. I will follow up on that one with another post over the weekend.

If you wish to view some pictures taken by a local photographer about various aspects of Easter in Poland, please go to: http://www.pbase.com/jolka/easter_in_poland. It pretty much covers everything a discussed above.