Happy Easter
Posted Thursday, March 20, 2008, 6:16 AM by Lonely Planet
Looks like there's lots of fun in store for the Easter weekend.
In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, a tradition of spanking or whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, men throw water at women and spank them with a special handmade whip called pomlázka (in Czech) or korbáč (in Slovak)... A legend says that women should be spanked in order to keep their health and beauty during whole next year.
We did not make that up! Honest.
All spanking aside, you might be interested in the Armenian celebrations. As the oldest Christian nation in Europe, the Holy See of Echmiadzin (Armenia's equivalent of the Vatican) holds a week-long series of events.
In Austria the Berliner Philharmoniker decamps to Salzburg for an Easter extravaganza of orchestral events and opera. While the town of Arles (home of Van Gogh and Gaugin and all that gang), kicks off the celebrations with a bullfight in the Roman amphitheatre.
Leading the charge though are Spain and Italy with huge festivities hosted in Lorca, Seville, Trapani, Taranto and, of course, the traditional candlelit procession along Via Crucis in Rome.
Failing all that you could always pop down to Kew Gardens for the annual egg hunt.
Buona pasqua a te!
Labels: Easter, Festivals and events
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1 Comments:
A friend of mine is traveling through Slovakia and the ritual of throwing water at women sounds a lot less charming and a lot more like sheer male harrassment. This is what she emailed me.
"OK, so the Monday after Easter, men and boys travel door-to-door. Women stay locked inside cooking for their families all day. When the women answer the door, the men throw icy water on them, and get rewarded with food and alcohol. The men get so drunk they eventually start misbehaving and occasionally throw hot water and send women to the hospital! In some outlying villages, the women get hit with a stick after the icy water ritual!
Oh, and did I mention that women walking the streets to say, go to work or buy groceries, can be hit with water by perfect strangers? And that mothers are awakened in the morning by their boys throwing water in their face?
Oh, and did I mention that it's still really cold in Slovakia this time of year? Supposedly other eastern European countries also participate in this holiday."
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