2020 Polish Easter Traditions
POLISH EASTER EGGS
It’s a very different Easter this year with the “Safer at Home” order keeping everybody at home in our state. Still, many Polish American families will follow Polish Easter traditions of which Easter egg decorating is perhaps the best known.
Traditionally, Polish Easter eggs come in three main varieties.Kraszanki are single-colored eggs made by boiling them in water with various natural ingredients (e.g. onion peels for red, red cabbage for blue, beets for pink and so on). Drapanki are created by using a sharp metal tool to scratch designs on the surface of kraszanki. Pisanki, on the other hand, have designs painted on eggshells with wax before they are dyed. There are also many other ways to decorate eggs –
as seen on the accompanying videos.
Happy Easter, Wesołych Świąt!
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WET MONDAY IN POLAND
Easter in Poland is a two-day festivity including the Wet Monday (Lany Poniedziałek in Polish), called also the Śmigus-Dyngus. Explanations of the pagan roots and regional differences abound but in general, the custom has two components. Smigus refers to people throwing water on each other, while Dyngus invokes the option to bribe (usually with decorated eggs or other Easter foods) the way out of getting wet.
In the past, the tradition was kept alive mostly in rural areas and it was boys who poured the buckets of water on girls. Nowadays, all bets are off and anybody can get wet, whether in urban or rural areas. The assortment of “water delivery tools” has also increased beyond the traditional buckets and ranges from small squirt eggs to …. fire trucks creating a lot of fun and excitement in some Polish communities.
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Archived Posts
- 2021 DYKP Contest, KF Gallery and Dr. Pease lectures
- 2020 Help Enact Resolution commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Katyn Massacre
- 2020 Independence And Veterans Day
- 2020 Remembering Paderewski
- 2020 POLISH HERITAGE MONTH
- 2020 Solidarity born 40 years ago
- 2020 Battle of Warsaw Centenary
- 2020 The Warsaw Rising Remembrance
- 2020 June/July News: Polish Elections, Polish Films Online and more
- 2020 Poland: Virtual Tours
- Centennial of John Paul II’s Birth
- 2020 Celebrating Polish Flag, Polonia and Constitution of May 3rd
- 2020 Polish Easter Traditions
- 2020 Census and Annual Election
- Flavor of Poland (Update 3)
- 2020 Copernicus, Banach & Enigma talk
- 2020 Do You Know Poland and other announcements
- 2020 Flavor of Poland (Update 2)
- 2020 People and Events of the Year
- 2019 Holidays
- 2019 December Medley
- 2019 Independence Celebration
- 2019 Independence Invitation
- 2019 WI Study in Poland Reports
- Lecture: Poland’s Entry Into the NATO
- August 2019 anniversaries
- 2019 Polish Fest
- Celebrating Polish Constitution and Ignacy Paderewski
- WSIP 2018 Reports (Wisconsin Study in Poland)
- 2018 Christmas Carols
- 2018 Polish Independence and Veterans Day
- November 2018 events
- October 2018 Events
- 2018 Kashube Lecture Notes
- September 2018 events
- 2018 Polish Fest Report
- Upcoming 2018 Polish Fest
- Celebrating Polish Constitution Day
- Poland 1979-1989 (panel discussion)
- Protest the Passage of S.447 in the U.S. House of Representatives
- STOP H.R.1226
- 2018 People and Events
- 2017 Polish Christmas Carols
- 2017 The Christmas Tradition of “Kraków Szopka”