Easter is one of the holiest festivals in the Christian calendar and is celebrated all over the world with great gusto and fervour. From painting and rolling your eggs to sitting down with the family for a slap up meal of roast lamb one thing is sure…Easter is open to all of our ritualistic, family traditions however eccentric they may seem!

Here in the good old UK we tend to celebrate Easter in a fairly restrained and tranquil manor with church services, an excess of chocolate and plenty of lamb. All over the world people celebrate this festival in a whole host of colourful and culturally unique ways. The folks of Ukraine forgo lamb in favour of a traditional egg and yam dish, and apparently Poland has a tradition of water fights in the streets on Easter Monday known as Smingus Dyngus. The egg decorating tradition is also a worldwide and popular Easter activity, the painted eggs are sometimes called “pace eggs” and the word pace comes from the word “pasche” which simply means Passover.

Our lovely colleague Petra is of Czech descent and she has been sharing some of her favourite Easter traditions with us over the last few weeks. The tale of the Pomlázka stick sure was one of our favourite tales. This is quite simply a stick made from willow branches and in most cases the willow is also decorated with colourful ribbons.

The Pomlázka is thought of as a symbol of youth, beauty, health and fertility with the males running around town whipping the young ladies while reciting a delightful wee poem. After the ladies have been “beaten” they then thank the men with gifts of coloured eggs and sweets for the younger ones and shots of Slivovice for the older ones. This wonderful folk tradition of “whipping” should really only be undertaken by single men so please keep your stick at home if you are already spoken for!

Here is the Easter whipping poem if you fancy joining in the fun…however do be careful who you go whipping as this tradition may require some explanation for the uninitiated!!

Hody hody doprovody

dejte vejce malovany

Nedate-li malovany

dejte aspon bily

však Vam slepička snese jiny

A basic translation of this would be:

“Give me a coloured egg

if you won’t give me a coloured egg

give me a white one

and get your hen to lay another.”

If you fancy trying out another very popular Easter activity why not try your hand at baking lamb shaped cakes? This is a wonderful way of embracing the traditions of our European cousins, and if you wanted an equally over-the-top antidote to the ‘death by chocolate’ usual Easter experience, why not serve this after a lamb roast for a lambtastically festive feast?

Disclaimer: Now as we are not religious gurus but in fact god-like butchers, some of the facts mentioned in this post may hold varying degrees of truth…and the rest is fairly daft – this is due to being infected by the festive fun and frolics of Easter!

Well we’ve certainly had an eggcellent time researching and preparing this post and don’t Passover the eggcuse for some thwacking good Easter fun!

Talk soon and remember to save some space for an egg or two after all your lamb!

Leisa