Erin's Prague Blog: back to Easter

I spent Easter weekend in Liberec with my friend Eliska and her family. The city was nice (often cold and rainy, but not this time), her family was great, and I enjoyed Czech Easter traditions like spending a day decorating eggs.

And yes, I let myself be pomlázka'd. :-)

When I wrote in my blog earlier about my discovery of the pomlazka tradition, I wasn't surprised to raise the ire of some of the Czechs who read my blog. So to mysterious Czech readers Jana and Mirek, and others who didn't comment on the blog, I wanted to respond and elaborate a bit. I hope you'll take it in the light, discussion-provoking manner in which it's intended!

I should be clearer; especially after having experienced the holiday and tradition, I realize that the whipping is for the most part in good fun. It was nice having neighbors stopping by the house and chatting (even if it was to spank us and get some painted eggs, candy, and alcohol!), and when not a lot of boys stopped by I could tell my host family was a bit disappointed. It's nice to hold on to traditions, and absolutely no one who stopped by was mean or disrespectful in any way.

That said, the tradition will always trouble me a bit, and here's why. I don't believe that many Czech men are aggressive and ready to pounce, but some could be, and here's a holiday where hitting women literally is condoned. Several boys who stopped by insisted that the soft end of the pomlaska was for young girls and we had to get the hard end which stung more, and a Czech guy I talked to said he knew guys who bought very hard whips special bc they thought it was more fun when it hurt.

Even more than that though, there's something a little disturbing to me about teaching this to children. Playful as it may be, there's something slightly degrading about being spanked, and I believe it must set in children's heads early on that boys (even the younger ones) dominate girls (even the older ones). So we'll leave it at that. I won't ask the Czechs to change their traditions, but were I to settle in Prague permanently, I wouldn't teach them to my children either. To each his own.