Slovak Easter Continued...

Our Canadian friend, Daniela, of Slovak descent, sent me the following e-mail after reading my last week's blog about the odd Slovak tradition of the males whipping and dousing the females Easter weekend...  http://www.janasrandomwriting.blogspot.com/2012/04/slovak-easter-whipping-and-dunking.html

I read your blog... too funny. I do remember when I was a kid, my Dad and brother (who were usually the first to get us), plus all the Slovak men that were family friends, would come over and SOAK my Mom and I all morning with jugs, or sometimes even buckets, of water. 

You can only imagine the fear of going to bed each year before Easter morning, knowing my Dad and brother took great pleasure in watching others soak us down. One year, I was still in bed when a young man did this to me. The bed was soaked and I was pi**ed! Not only was there screaming, yelling, running and lots of water everywhere each year, but the custom was for the "violated" women to give the men a gift for doing this, and then of course mop up the mess without the culprit's help!!! Can you believe it? With regards to getting whipped with branches or canes, I think my Mom drew the line there. In more affluent families, I guess the tradition is to douse the ladies with a nice spray of expensive perfume, especially if you were courting her. We got plain ol' cold water. We provided a nice breakfast for each man that came over, plus some nice Easter chocolates. Now that you mention it, and now that I reflect on this, I think perhaps this is one of the many reasons I became a feminist at such an early age!!!

Daniela