Slovak Easter

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Slovak Easter

• Karolína Rochovská II.H

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owerview

• Easter
• Easter in the past
• Easter traditions now
• Decoration
• Easter food

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Easter

• Easter is the most significant Christian holiday.
  
• Because it is a moveable holiday, its date
  changes every year.
• Easter to proclaim the coming of spring.
• Christians begin Easter celebration on Holy
  Thursday.
• Good Friday is a state holiday in Slovakia.

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Easter in the past

• In a village people start celebrating Easter on
  Thursday already (this day is called Green
  Thursday). At 10 A. M. the bells always stopped
  ringing-they used to say that the bells had been
  "tied." They did it to honor Jesus Christ who had
  been crucified. Only on Saturday (Biela Sobota)
  at 10 A.M. the bells were finally untied.
• When the bell rang the first time, girls ran to
  the village brook or river to wash themselves, so
  that they'd be beautiful all through the year.
• On Sunday everyone went to church.
• On Monday morning girls used to get up early to
  be ready when the first guys-kupaci come.
• Oblievacka (water pouring) is a typical Easter
  Monday custom in Slovakia. The character of
  oblievacka slightly varies from region to region.
  On this day men visit their female relatives and
  friends and pour water on them, and whip them
  gently with special whips made of braided willow
  rods. According to tradition, pouring water on
  women will guarantee their beauty and good health
  throughout the year.

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Easter traditions now

• Habits of the past are preserved only in some
  regions
• In many regions, water buckets have been replaced
  with perfumes, a small syringe filled with water,
  a water cup, or a water pistol.
• However, in some villages you may still see young
  men, sometimes riding on the horses or dressed in
  traditional folk costumes, who come with rattles
  and braided whips decorated with colorful
  ribbons.
• They may take females out of the houses and
  douse them with a bucket or buckets filled with
  cold water. During this tradition men may sing
  songs and play the accordion.
• Then women reward men with sweets, fruit, money,
  or painted Easter eggs.

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Decoration colored eggs - Kraslice

• Decorated eggs are used as decorations, but in
  the past, the boys received them from the girls
  as a reward
• Professionals in the art of egg-decorating
  decorating them with straw, wax or bobbin lace.
  They usually use egg shells from which the raw
  yolk is blown through two opposite holes poked in
  the top and bottom.
• Normal people, especially families with children,
  prefer to decorate hard-boiled eggs, which are
  less fragile. The most common method of
  decorating is dying the eggs with onion skins,
  which makes their colour deep brown

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Willow whip

• Popular pagan tradition surviving to these days
  is the whipping of women and girls.
• The whip or korbác is braided from three or
  more willow rods.
• Its original purpose and symbolic meaning is to
  chase away illness and bad spirits and to bring
  health and youth for the rest of the year to
  everyone who is whipped with the young
  pussywillow twigs.

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Easter food

• On Green Thurstday we eat green food, for example
  soup of spring herbs, spinach, lettuce.
• On Friday, we eat fish because it is lent
• at Easter not miss ham,
• smoked meat, eggs, cheese,
• sausage, horseradish,
• hrudka (Slovak egg cheese),
• pasha bread and Easter
• cakes.

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• Thank you for your attention