Two weeks ago, we saw and participated a bit to celebrate the Easter weekend. It was not totally traditional because they didn’t wear traditional costumes. But now I will explain you how they celebrate this event and why it is so different than in France.
The first thing that comes to a Slovak’s person mind after hearing “Easter” is “water and spanking.” What do it mean? Read on and make sure you watch the attached video to understand better what we are going to tell you.
Normally this kind of things happen just with the single girls. Why? Because the tradition goes that young guys shall visit every house in the village and sprinkle them with water and spank them with whips made of willow branches. Please note that “sprinkle” is a mild word here. Sometimes the guys come with water buckets.
It was very weird and unusual for us to see that because to spank girls is not a thing that you can do in France without the consent of the girl. To understand better what we saw, we show you some pictures below and a YouTube link to watch a video.
Traditional Slovak Easter activity
In the ancient tradition, after this activity, guys may invite girls for eating together. Because it is just a tradition, some town and cities replaced to use cold water buckets by perfume bottles. But, they also do many things which are good like play accordion, eat a special Easter menu for this event.
Charlie Planchenault
Erasmus in Slovakia 