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In the days leading up to Easter, you could buy bundles of willow branches at streetside booths everywhere. The branches are used in a strange and uniquely Czech Easter ritual that is pretty much only celebrated in the villages anymore. The men of the village cruise the streets from about 8 a.m. until noon, going door to door to smack the village girls' butts with the willow branches. The men recite little rhymes requesting some number of eggs from the girls, and the girls then give the eggs to the men upon successful completion of the butt-slapping. Copious amounts of slivovice (home-distilled plum brandy) are drunk throughout the morning. At the Easter celebration we attended, our host was passed out drunk in his chair by 2 p.m. When I asked my students the next day how they had enjoyed their Easter, one of the girls replied, in a very hopeless and mournful tone, "I hate Easter." This observer suspects that the ritual will die out within a generation or two. |
