Czech Easter Holiday
Have you ever experienced the typical Czech Easter? And would you like to know how people in the Czech Republic celebrate it? Let’s get to know the typical Czech traditions, customs and symbols connected with this season and cook a typical Czech Easter meal.
Do you know how a typical
Czech Easter week looks like?
It starts on so called
Ash Wednesday. The name of this day is derived from a very old habit of villagers. In the morning a sweeper came to the house of the farmer and swept all the chimneys. After this, housewives cleaned stoves and fireplaces. They took out all the ash from their house. It is said that people should not frown on this day; otherwise they will frown every next Wednesday in the next year.
Holy Thursday is attended by the voice of bells that ring for the last time before their “fly to Rome”. People make it up for the voice of rattles and clappers. This day is called “Green Thursday” in Czech because people should eat something green – spinach, cress or nettles. You can use vegetable also as an ingredient to some typical Easter meals such as very popular farcing which is eaten together with chicken and potatoes.
Good Friday is considered to be the saddest day of the whole year - it commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion. In the morning, the villagers got up before the sunrise to wash themselves in a brook. This habit should have protected their health. It is also said that nothing should be borrowed this day, because the borrowed thing might be spellbound. Be on guard! You should not work on field and move with soil this day – something bad could happen to you in the next year! Good Friday is connected with magic powers; rocks open themselves and uncover treasures for a short while. Do you know about any?
Easter Eve, so called “White Saturday”, is a day when families finish preparations for Easter. Women bake cross buns, sweet bread containing dried fruit and spices, and paint Easter eggs, families clean the whole house and decorate it for visitors. In the past, Easter Saturday was in token of fire element, e.g. the priest sanctified flames.
Easter Sunday is the most important holy day for all Christians. On this day, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is celebrated in the whole Christian world. Czech people breakfast usually traditional Easter lamb, cross buns in Czech called “mazanec” and hard boiled eggs. Christians as well as many non-Christians go for Easter Mass to the churches in the whole country.
Easter Monday is the most popular day, nowadays mainly for children. From Monday morning, young men and boys go from house to house with Easter whippers and whip every woman and girl they see. It is said that the girl will stay young. The guys get a lot of presents like Easter eggs, fruit, Easter ginger breads or Easter chocolate bunnies and the older one of course a noggin. Czech girls often defend with a bucket of water, sometimes mixed with vinegar or perfume and they pour it on the men. All these customs can be seen mainly in the small towns, but you can came across them in Prague as well.
Would you like to prepare Czech Easter at your own home? We can show you how to bake the typical Czech baked Easter lamb.
You will need: 240 g flour, 200g sugar, 1 vanilla sugar, 6 eggs, 1 baking powder, 250 g butter, lentils, and green twig as a decoration.
With a whisk, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture is light and pale. Melt the butter and add it into the sugar. Then fold in the flour with baking powder and mix well. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and also fold them into the mixture. When the sponge is ready, pour it into lamb-shaped cake mould and bake in preheated oven (150-180°C) for 25-35 minutes until the sponge is gold brown. Let it cool down, and then you can take it out and decorate with lentils instead of eggs and green twig placed in the lamb’s mouths.
Enjoy your Easter meal!
How do you celebrate Easter in your country? What’s your favourite Easter meal? Let us know in comments...
