Easter Traditions in Prague

About two weeks ago, we walked through Old Town Square, the oldest square in the city and one of the most visited spots in Prague. Rising out of the center of the square was a huge tree decorated with pastel plastic Easter eggs. In addition, many small wooden huts were being erected all over the square. Ahhhh, the Easter Markets were coming to town.

At Christmas and Easter in Prague, markets spring up in the main city squares for about three weeks around the holidays. The Easter Markets are almost identical to the Christmas ones, except decorated with eggs instead of Christmas trees. The markets are made up of people selling food, drinks, and tchotchkes. We didn’t buy much at Christmas or Easter, just a few ornaments. The real fun of the markets is just walking around and people watching.

While the Czech Republic is nominally Christian, it is much less religious than its neighboring countries of Poland and Slovakia, which are ardently Catholic. The Czech Republic has developed into a fairly secular society with Christian roots and a long complicated religious history (just ask Phil about it). The holidays of Christmas and Easter are certainly still religious holidays, but also have some strongly secular traditions associated with them as well. One of the Czech Easter traditions that has made us laugh has been the popular “pomlázka”. (Keep in mind that to Czechs, the fuzzy white bunny that brings you chocolates and candy is pretty strange, too.) A pomlázka is a whip made of braided willow branches. The tradition was explained to us as follows…In your village or family, men/boys are allowed to carry around the pomlázka and hit the females/girls. The women/girls carry around decorated eggs and give them to the men when they're hit. It is rumored that nowadays, the women can also give shots of liquor to the men, in case they don’t want painted eggs. Only in the CZ. In the afternoon, the women are apparently allowed to carry around buckets of water to throw at the men folk. All of this is supposedly an ancient fertility ritual…hmmmmm. We have at least one Czech friend who tells us that this tradition lives on in her family. I will tell you that on every street corner and in the Easter markets, there were many pomlázka for sale all week. I swear I’m not making this up, so here are links that outline these wacky Czech traditions.

Vesele Velikonoce! Happy Easter!