Thursday, April 13, 2006

The strangest Easter tradition I've ever heard of

Today, talking to the Czech professor who is hosting me here in the Czech Republic, he told me nonchalantly about an old Czech Easter tradition which made my jaw drop. And sure enough, I confirmed it with a number of others, all of whom found it typical and no big deal.

Every Easter Monday, to bring good luck and a good summer harvest, men and boys whip the girls and women.

Seriously, yes! I can only imagine that this is generally done in a light and teasing manner, as the Czech guys who told me are all sweet as can be and I can't imagine them taking part in this otherwise. But still, they also mentioned that sometimes it is taken too far, "and the women don't appreciate that much". An understatement if I ever heard one!


The whipping generally occurs on either the legs or the buttocks. The name of the whip -- and the "flogging festival" itself -- is the pomlázka. The tradition is a pagan one, and perhaps regrew in popularity during Communist times, in which celebrating the religious focus of Easter was generally forbidden. (Also due to this, Easter Monday and not at all Good Friday or even Easter Sunday is the most celebrated day here). The pomlazka whip is traditionally made of braided willow twigs, but these days men typically just buy them. Often, the women also have water thrown on them by the men, to "cleanse" them prior to the whipping. In exchange for being whipped by the men, the women are expected to give the man who whipped them candy or some small gift. More often in recent times the gift is actually alcohol. Really, you ask, get the men carrying the whips drunk? Whose idea was this?!! They also give the men they like a ribbon to hang off of the whip. Boys and men who are left without many ribbons hanging off their whip are often quite embarrassed.

Signs of an abusive relationship? Women who are not whipped, or not often, are said to be a little hurt, since no one bothered to show them the proper attention.

So what do women think of this? Here is one Czech woman's point of view.


Can you even imagine something like this happening in the U.S.? Even assuming that it was absolutely always done in good fun (which I have trouble believing so condoning it seems a little scary), can you imagine parents putting up with this being done in a schoolyard, for example? This is the country where children hugging each other can sometimes get them in trouble!

Craziness, pure craziness. No one better shake a twig at me this weekend, that's all I can say!



To any Czechs reading this, I'm sure you'll think I'm overreacting and tell me it's no big deal, and I'm sure it normally isn't. Regardless, this entry covers my general reaction. :-)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello Erin.
Have you been in Czech Republic for the Easter? Probably not. Otherwise you would not see it just black and white from what you've heard.
And nobody hurts as hard that you would have to go to the hospital. :) Usually you already know the boys. It is more fun and meeting with other people. You sound like that the man are bottled up whole year for this one day to whip the girls that they aren't thinking about anything else. :)
Of course there can be some men who would use this as an excuse to hurt woman but you can find this kind of people everywhere, The normal people have just nice time.
JANA.