I like Easter. This was not always the case. Growing up as a girl in Czechoslovakia meant that Easter Monday was often a dreaded day. Hordes of boys and man equipped with carefully crafted whips made from willow started calling to our house from early hours. This is what a guide to the Czech Republick says: “Young, live pussywillow twigs are thought to bring health and youth to anyone who is whipped with them. An Easter pomlázka (from pomladit or “make younger”) is a braided whip made from pussywillow twigs. It has been used for centuries by boys who go caroling on Easter Monday and symbolically whip girls on the legs.  In the past, pomlázka was also used by the farmer’s wife to whip the livestock and everyone in the household, including men and children. There would be no Czech Easter without the pomlázka.” Somehow I remember that the whipping was more than just symbolic; especially as the day progressed and the male half of population got little more heavy-handed under the influence of plum spirit (slivovice) generously served in every household visited. All the younger boys receive decorated Easter eggs (real eggs, not chocolate ones!). The most common and fastest way of decorating Easter eggs is to dip hardboiled eggs in hot water filled with boiled onion peels or food dye and then place a sticker with an Easter picture on the egg.

Today, my children are growing up in Ireland and they see Easter as a chocolate feast. After long length (during which they make half hearted effort to give up some treats) they are really looking forward to Easter Sunday which means getting, opening and eating loads of eggs (chocolate ones, not real ones!).

The one Easter Czech tradition that I am trying to keep alive for them though is dyeing and decorating eggs during the Easter week. All the au pairs that we had during spring season in the last few years are always evolved and help them with it. What they children really enjoy is going to a shop, buying a large tray of eggs and them making a small hole at each end of an egg and blowing hard to get the content of the egg out. This year we have ended up with 14 egg yolks/whites and as a result, they then baked a dozen of muffins and a big cake and there still were some left for scrambled eggs for breakfast! And of course the Easter lamb or bunny mould is essential baking equipment in my kitchen. Somehow a cake in a shape of a cute bunny tastes better than an ordinary shaped cake. Happy Easter!