It was spring 2005.
I was still new in the Czech Republic.
And I was teaching a group class inside a company.
As my students came into the conference room, I made some small talk and asked each of them how their weekend was.
“I beat my wife,” said Jan.
“I beat my wife, my daughter and my grandmother,” said Pavel.
“I beat every woman in my village,” said Jiri.
“What a violent group of accountants,” I thought to myself.
EASTER, PART TWO
In a world where you can hear rock n roll and see Valentine’s Day decorations on every continent, it’s nice to find places that keep local traditions alive.
The Czech Republic is one of those places.
As I later learned, their Easter Monday tradition is for the men to beat the women in their house (and maybe also the village) with the branch of a willow tree.
And “lightly hit” is more accurate than “beat.”
As they do this, they must say a poem.
And then the woman must give the man an egg or a shot of alcohol.
I think it’s a lovely tradition.
Would you like this tradition imported to your country?
Unfortunately, I don’t think the American woke mob would tolerate it for one second.
An interesting tradition. Even though to be honest, I wouldn’t like to have it adapted for many reasons, mainly it might not longer fit in – what you call ‘wokeness’, I would call it mindfulness. Besides I am wondering whether ‘mob’ has the same very negative connotation as it does here in Germany. “Mob” describes people of low educational and social standing.
Hi, we Poles are slightly less cruel. On Easter Monday, our national sport is to pour water on our girls and women. Usually with bottles or sprayers, but sometimes also with buckets, especially in the countryside.
Here in Hungary, girls used to be doused with a bucket of water; nowadays, it’s just cologne. After the fifth person has doused us, we can go wash our hair and get dressed. The children recite poems and receive eggs, pastries, and chocolate, while the men get palinka.
If you ask my opinion, I think in the past it was a power ritual showing to women who is the boss and how’s it works..
ha, ha 😀!!!
Now, is just for fun, but who knows.
In Transilvania (a region of Romania) the tradition is for men to spray women with perfume (mostly yang unmaried men and women) and in return receive eggs, cokies or samethng to drink. In the past there was a real competision betwin the girls.