Picharffs: Czeching It Out: Easter

Easter in the Czech Republic is like no other place in the world. Well, that is until Mankato, Minnesota adopts some of the finer traditions beginning next spring.

The kids had off from school last Thursday, Friday, and this Monday. Their presence was a nice reminder that it was a special time. It helped me think about the events of the Thursday (Christ's last passover with the Apostles, His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane) and Friday (His trial and death by crucifixion).

Then on Saturday, we made a little pilgrimage. Twenty kilometers from Ceske Budejovice lies the village of Řimov (Little Rome). Along a trail some five kilometers long, they have 25 little chapels that depict the events from the Last Supper through the resurrection. Constructed in the second half of the 17th and early 18th century, each chapel contains paintings or statues or, unfortunately, large photographs of the statues that have been removed from the chapels so they don't get stolen. Below are some of my photos, but there are really good ones on this site.


Jesus Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. From Easter	While his disciples slept. From Easter

Jesus carrying his cross to Calvary. From Easter	While the women of Jerusalem wept. From Easter

The pilgrimage ended at the church in Řimov. This is about the most interesting church I have ever been in. When you go through the doors you enter a courtyard. There is the outer wall and a ceiling that extends inward some 15 feet, but then it is open to the courtyard. The walls around, the ceiling, and the columns holding it up are covered in paintings of the saints and with statues. There are confession booths along some walls and the little chapels in the corners. But it's all open air. In the middle is a very small building. Inside is a chapel that was made to hold maybe 10 people. It was a striking mix of simple (being open like it was) and ornate.

Church on Sunday was great, as you know it's going to be on Easter. There were some special musical numbers, great hymns that we only get to sing at this time of year, and bearing of testimonies.

For the Czechs in general, Easter is really all about the festivities of Easter Monday. Prior to this special day, men and boys go out to the woods and cut suckers from willow trees to weave them together into pomlazky - flexible willow switches decorated with brightly colored ribbons. You can also buy them at the market, like we did. During the morning hours on Easter Monday, the males roam around town, visiting friends and relatives. Using their pomlazky they gently swat the females on the bum while singing:

In Czech:	Translated:
Hody. Hody. Doprovody. Dej nam vejce malovani. Nedaš-li nam malovani. Dej nam aspon bily. Slepička za to snese jiny.	Revel. Revel. Entourages. Give us colored eggs. If you don't give us colored Give us at least white The Hen will give you others.

The female then thanks the swatter by giving him an egg she colored.

Now, hang on there, before you get all excited about it being sexist and unfair, you need to understand that this annual switching makes the girls beautiful and fruitful. Girls and women look forward to this event even more than the men do. What's more, walk down the street of any city in this country and you'll see that it works to make the women hezky (beautiful).

Afternoon, it's the girls' turn. They throw cold water on the boys.

This tradition goes way back in Czech culture. So, how did the Picha-Harff's do in adopting it? Well...

Silas couldn't hardly wait for the big day. He got up on Easter Sunday ready to go at it, so we reminded him it wasn't Monday. He swatted his mother, friends, and older women from church - they thought he was adorable. Caleb felt weird about the whole thing and only barely participated in swatting his mother and the Tučkovi girls. I jumped in with both feet and plan to make myself a pomlazky next spring and keep up the tradition.


Silas swatting the Tučkovi girls. From Easter	Caleb, coolly swatting the same hezky houlky. From Easter

Lucy had resisted coming to the Czech Republic out of fear for Easter Monday. I don't get it, but she was super opposed to being made beautiful and fruitful. None of us got to swat her, except one of the missionaries, in the middle of swatting Kristine, switched over to Lucy. She was not amused (I thought I got a photo of her expression - she may have deleted it).

Our pomlazky and eggs and bread from the Tučkovi. From Easter

Kristine was a perfect Czech girl. She was delighted at the swatting, allowing family and missionaries to take part. Then, come afternoon, she devised a plot to pour water on the missionaries. We invited them over for a special Easter treat. We arranged for them to come at 4:30. Right on the nose, the buzzer chimed. Kristine dashed to the window where she had her watering can, fully loaded, waiting. She threw open the sash and rained Easter greetings down on...our neighbor! The painfully shy, middle-aged, single engineer that lives below us and has never said more than four words to us looked up to see a stream of water rushing toward him. Meanwhile, the buzzer chimed again. I opened our door and there stood the missionaries. It turns out they had buzzed, but then the neighbor let them in as he was leaving. All's well that ends well though. Kristine wrote a note of apology, which he graciously accepted in a return note. And, Kristine was able to still get the missionaries wet as they left.