Easter in Poland

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Easter in Poland
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ABOUT THE EASTER

• Easter is one of the most popular family holiday
  In Poland and many other countries all over the
  Word. Its a unique time in the year when almost
  all members of a family gather together at the
  table to celebrate a traditional dinner.
  Everybody tries to be kind, friendly and generous
  to one another. People forget about their
  problems, quarrels and simply enjoy being
  together. Easter is not only the celebration of
  resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is the
  springtime Christian festival, which honors the
  resurrection, or rising from the dead, of Jesus
  states the World Book Encyclopedia under the
  heading Easter.

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THE PRELUDE

• To commemorate the 40 days Christ prayed and
  fasted in the desert, Easter is preceded by a
  40-day period of penance known as Lent. It begins
  on Ash Wednesday when the faithful have their
  heads sprinkled with ashes in churches to remind
  them how quickly the things of this world pass.
  Lent is a time of special religious exercises
  such as Stations of the Cross and parish
  retreats. The Polish term for "Lent" is "the
  Great Fast" (Wielki Post) which indicates that
  this was originally a period of severe
  self-mortification. Loud parties and other forms
  of amusement are given up, and in Poland few
  weddings take place during this period.

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HOLY WEEK OR "THE GREAT WEEK"

• The climax of Lent is Holy Week, the seven days
  before Easter. It begins on Palm Sunday,
  commemorating Christ's triumphal ride into
  Jerusalem, where the populace greeted Him with
  palm branches. Passion plays are some-times held
  to re-enact the suffering and death of the Lord.
• To Christian believers, probably the most somber
  day of the year is Good Friday, when Tre Ore
  services (Latin for "three hours") are held to
  symbolize the three hours Jesus hung on the Cross.

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EASTER SATURDAY

• On the Easter Saturday every christians go to
  the churches, to bless their Easter backets. They
  bring salt, sausage, paund cake, bread, ham,
  eggs, roast bacon, pate, just pieces of every
  food they have, because they believe that blessed
  food will be healthier.

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EASTER SUNDAY

• In Poland, early-morning religious celebrations
  are held to commemorate Christ's Resurrection.
  The Mass of Resurrection begins at the crack of
  dawn with a procession that thrice encirlces the
  church. Church bells, which had been silent
  towards the end of Holy Week, now ring out and
  joyfully proclaim "Christ is risen!"
• Poles rush home after church to begin a day of
  feasting with a festive Easter breakfast. Poles
  go in for hours of cold-dish entertaining with
  platters of cold ham, sausage, pork loin, roast
  bacon, pate, hard-cooked eggs in various sauces
  and such relishes aspickled mushrooms,
  horseradish and cwikla (grated beetroot
  horseradish).

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EASTER LAMB OR RABBIT?

• The Oster-hase (German for the mythical
  egg-laying hare belonging to the goddess Eostre)
  was simply adopted by some 19th-century
  stationer, giving rise to the millions of
  rabbit-covered Easter cards we see today.
• The Easter Lamb, shown with a banner of
  Resurrection, is the Christian adaptation of the
  sacrificial Paschal Lamb of the Jews. To
  Christians, the lamb was the Agnus Dei, the Lamb
  of God, in other words the Redeemer who shed His
  blood to cleanse mankind of sin.
• In Polish tradition it is customary to place a
  lamb made of sugar, butter or even plastic in the
  Easter basket that is taken to church to be
  blessed.

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EASTER EGGS GALORE

• The idea of Easter eggs goes back to the time of
  ancient Persia and Egypt and was also a part of
  the culture of the Germanie tribes of Europe. The
  latter believed that eggs were laid by Eostre's
  pet hare. The egg was easily taken over by
  Christian culture to symbolize new life. Just as
  a chick breaks out of its shell, so too, Jesus
  emerged from His tomb.
• Easter eggs are colored or otherwise decorated
  by a wide variety of techniques, including dying.
  painting and etching. The most ornate
  multicolored eggs come from Poland's Ukrainian
  borderlands in the southeast, where designs are
  applied with molten wax. The egg is dipped in
  dye, then dried, again decorated with molten wax
  and immersed in yet another color bath. This
  process may be repeated a number of times to
  create gaily patterned Easter eggs of four, five
  and more different colors.
• The easiest Easter eggs are the solid-color
  variety. This is the favorite of small children
  on both sides of the Atlantic, since it suffices
  to dip a hard-cooked egg into a color solution
  for several minutes. Some decorate their eggs
  with various decals.

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THE GREETINGS

• Americans wish one another "Happy Easter", the
  Polish equivalent of which is "Wesotego
  Alleluja!" If someone wanted to send Easter
  greetings to friends in the English-speaking
  world, he might write
• "With best wishes for a joyous and blessed
  Easter to you and your entire family."
• He could also say
• "Wishing you and yours a very happy Easter and
  all the Lord's abundant blessings."
• Another, more casual possibility
• "From all of us to all of you have yourselves a
  happy, healthy and memorable Easter holiday!".

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GAMES

• Easter Monday once ushered in a
  several-week-long custom of Easter caroling or
  trick-or-treating. Actually, the "dyngus" part of
  "smigus-dyngus" once meant humorous
  house-to-house begging by groups of Easter
  carolers. A stingy householder could expect to be
  drenched with a bucket of water or thrashed with
  switches ("smigus"). Eventually, the two customs
  merged, and today only the drenching tradition
  has truly survived. This brief survey has barely
  scratched the surface of Easter festivities in
  Poland and America. Nevertheless, I think it has
  fully confirmed the well-known Polish saying "Co
  kraj to obyczaj!" which could be loosely
  translated as "different countries, different
  ways!"

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The End

• Thank You for watching this presentation. I hope
  you have enjoyed it!