I have many lovely memories of Easter in Slovaka.
As a young girl, the Easter celebrations at school were wild, wet and fun! The boys would chase the girls and spray them with water using plastic siringes ( before water guns were invented) perfume and even toothpaste. It was kind of like a food fight without the food. It was messy but it was fun!
My grandmother lived in a small village all her life and told me about the Easter traditions. On Easter Monday, the village young man and boys would dress in traditional Slovak costume, and visit a girl they fancied at her house. They would shout out to her to come out, and as she came out they would whip her with a young willow tree branch. It was regarded as good luck for the girl to be whipped. All the boys in the village would go from house to house, chase the girls out and herd them to the village creek, where they would be chased into or picked up and thrown into the creek. My grandma told me it was good luck and washed away evil and back luck.
I remember my mum preparing and decorating Easter eggs. She showed me how to empty the eggs without breaking the egg shells. She pierced a small hole on the top and bottom of the egg, then would blow out the contents. These were later used to make Easter cheese. We then painted and decorated the eggs. She also hard boiled eggs in water with food colouring to colour the shells, and made several batches in different colours. These eggs were used for decoration later eaten.
Later when we lived here in Australia, my father would prepare the Easter basket, with sausages, bread, cakes, cucumber, tomatoes, decorated Easter eggs and Easter cheese. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slovak-easter-cheese-cirak/
We would take the basket to church and have it blessed by the priest. After fasting all day, once the basket was blessed, we could take it home, feast and celebrate.
Easter was a family and community celebration in Slovakia and later here in Australia in the Slovak community. Sadly, as I grew up here and married, I have not been following these tradition and lost touch with the Slovak community. Thinking about it today, they are lovely traditions, and I should show my children how we celebrated. Perhaps it is time to introduce my family to these. One of them is to pour a cup of cold water on the girls on Easter Monday morning while they are still in bed. I wonder how they will take that? ;)
