Polish Easter

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PolishEaster
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Easter in Poland!. What does it mean for
Polish people and how do we celebrate this
event? Here is a short presentation
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• Easter is very important for Polish people
  from the religious point of view, as Poland is a
  very Catholic country. It is preceded,
  according to the religious tradition, by the
  Lent, which lasts for 40 days.

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The week preceding Easter is the time of the
intensive preparations, at the religious level
and on the practical side. It all starts with
Branch Sunday (Palm Sunday). On this day people
go to churches with colourful palms in their
hands to have them blessed by the priest. This
tradition is very alive in certain parts of
Poland. There are even some contests organised,
where the longest palm wins.
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Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. This
week is time of deep reflection, therefore some
parishes organise the so called Rekolekcje when
the Catholics can go to church on special Masses
to prepare spiritually to Easter. On Holy
Friday an exceptional Mass takes place - Way of
the Cross - then the last moments of Jesus
Christs life is read out from the Bible.
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• Saturday, according to the old Polish
  tradition, is the day when the so called holy
  menu is blessed by the priest at church. That is
  the final point of Easter preparation houses are
  already clean and all the dishes for 2-day-feast
  should be ready, as when the blessed food" is in
  the house, there is not any more right to do
  preparation work. It is the time of reflection
  and vigil in church at the symbolic tomb of Jesus
  Christ.

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• What is it the holy menu?
• It is called swieconka, in English blessed
  food. It a small garnished basket, where people
  put some hard-boiled eggs, bread, salt, meat,
  fruit and an Easter bunny, and they take it to
  church to have it blessed. The blessed food
  will start breakfast on Holy Sunday.

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Polish people also observe the habit of
decorating eggs. These eggs are called in Polish
Pisanki or Kraszanki.
They are usually colourfully painted or dyed.
They can be also embellished with wax designs or
the patterns can be carved in the shell with the
use of a sharp tool. These beautiful eggs will be
then a decoration of the table!
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Easter Sunday starts with Resurrection Mass at 6
a.m. After that, the whole family gathers at the
table full of delicious things and have
breakfast, which starts with a prayer. Then, the
holy food is divided into chunks and every
member of the family gets a small piece of it.
Only then people can savour the rest of the
dishes. Such breakfast can last long hours, as
Polish people like to feast.
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• Easter Monday in Poland is known as Wet Monday or
  Smigus-Dyngus. During that day, it is allowed to
  pour water on others, even some unknown! So the
  best thing you can do, if you want to have dry
  clothes, is to stay at home, otherwise you have
  to take into account that you may get soaking
  wet! Formerly, pouring water on unmarried
  girls was the way of showing them mens inerest.
  The more water the man poured on the girl, the
  more he liked her! Then the girl used to thank
  the boy for choosing her by offering him some
  decorated eggs!

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