A little Easter Tradition, Czech-style

So, Easter is an important holiday for us in the states. A day to commemorate the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ, and maybe a little about the Easter Bunny. Just good wholesome fun traditions we have, yea? Well, now let me welcome you to the sick heathenistic, demented celebration that the Czechs know as Easter.

So, Easter isn't really so much a religious holiday for them. Actually, it's not at all. Maybe they know about it, but it doesn't really matter a lot to them. They center on the older tradtions of Easter and the coming of Spring and celebrate it the way the pagans did centuries and centuries ago. Their holiday is about bringing fertility and a healthy spring to the year. So here it goes, you ready?

The big Easter day isn't so much Easter Sunday, it actually is Easter Monday. Yea, that's right, monday. (And they are shocked when they hear we don't have Easter Monday. We don't get any holiday on Monday, and they can't understand it). On Monday morning, the celebration begins. All the men start by gathering and going out from there. They are walking around the town with these small wooden stick (usually woven from many small sticks (very cool actually), and they take them to different girls' houses and proceed to whip them on their behinds (not hard i think though) and from each girl, they get some ribbon that they can attach to their whip. So it's pretty prestigious to get a lot of ribbons. The girls also give them some kind of a shot of alcohol. So by noon (when the men have to stop their whipping) the men are all passed out drunk with their whips and ribbons. For the girls, it's not at all any kind of sexual harrassment though, they like it. It makes them feel special or something. It's tradition. And if the girl gets whipped a lot, it means that she is going to have a healthy year! Good for her, yea!?!?

Yet, just like us, they decorate eggs also and can give them out to the men as well. It's a big celebration, maybe one of the biggest of the year, and everyone looks forward to it. The kids are all playin around throwing eggs (regular eggs) at each other and everyone else is active in the lustful whipping and shot taking. What a beautiful way to welcome the entrance of Spring and the Ressurrection of our Lord. Amen.