Velikonoce in Czech Republic

"Semana Santa" exists only in Spain, it's a catholic holiday, in the rest of Europe is celebrated
The Easter (Velikonoce in Czech), the feast strange for us to decorate eggs. In the Czech Republic are preparing sweets in the form of a sheep, is sprayed with water and perfume for women while they are beaten with a stick decorated, called "pomlázka", you can see that all tradition has strange habits.

There are many different habits in the Czech Republic during this week but the most prominent it may be EAT. They are eating at all hours without getting up from the table after the lunch, they begin with a snack, watch that the Spanish welcome always with meals but the Czechs are beyond us.

While in Spain on Thursday and Friday of this week are festive, here it is only Monday, therefore the Thursday at work we welcome in a special way Velikonoce with children. We did different workshops by where the children were playing. 

It was very nice to attend so many children and not to try to competition, only rotated by the diferents workshops, as you can see from the photos we did a craft workshop where they could prepare postcards for their families and friends with reasons of Velikonoce and sheep in the form of hub and decorated with wool. Also easter eggs were painted and they decorated the typical cookies with sugar. It was a special day, in full holiday the college where they were all pretty excited and actives, at the end of the evening all were with their crafts and gifts.

Once the work is finished I was able to enjoy the weekend with Czech traditions. I tried sweet, typical meals and alcohols from this era in Czech Republic, visit a museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and I could celebrate Easter with a lovely family, what more could you ask for!

In the Czech Republic as in many European countries the feasts are divided into catholic and pagan customs, Easter in the pagan traditions celebrate the end of winter, understood as the death and the arrival of spring. Typical performances are performed on Sunday in death, a group of girls and children sing and dance traditional Czech songs while moving a large rag doll call Morana, slavic goddess of death and that his stroll through the streets may be most similar to our Semana Santa. After the performance the doll is either burned or drowned symbolizing the end of winter and death.

These photos are taken in Rožnov, where is the museum where you can observe the life style of the Czechs a hundred years ago, has a thousand crafts stalls of food and drink, also give performances of folk dances and costumes of these times.
We could spend a wonderful day, counting with the time typical of April that in the same way that the sun is shining radiant it begins to rain suddenly, the museum was filled with families, couples and groups of friends celebrating the Easter in a traditional way: with the background music, bigs glasses with beer, and the typical sweet from Velikonoce that will be done with different ingredients according to the area of the country and that you can see from the image.

This is "kolače", a cake rather dry and decorated with typical Czech cheese and poppy seeds or jam. Another thing that offered in several stands, that was new to me, was the Czech fast food, from Hungary and called Lángos, this is a fried toast on which added cheese, tartar sauce and garlic.

I could also try the Medovinka, a liquor of honey and almonds that you can drink cold or hot, we tried it hot and we fell in love with! We bought a bottle for home, this liquor has a sweet taste reminded me the flavor of the lolipop with forms of heart that ate when I was a child (and not so kid).

On Monday, the only national holiday that is maintained in the present, the mentor of my colleague invited us to eat with your family, is greatly appreciated these details when you're away from home as it helps you to not feel alone.
It was a pleasure to meet his family, we also know about Czech customs, as the lashes from men to women with the typical "pomlázka" that you can see from the image, you can see like a machism tradition (me too) but it is wish you good health and good luck to the women with symbolic lashes, it's a tradition that their ancestors maintained because they believed in the magic power of these wands.

Following this tradition a pair of shots of Slivovice, a liquor of grapes really pleasant. From that moment, we are dedicated almost exclusively to eat, drink and talk and we communicated as we could, a little bit of Czech and with the help of Cristina to translate into English. We ate a typical Czech menu, a soup with "balls" of liver, a chicken fillet stuffed and fried.

For dessert we drank coffee and ate a fruit cake made in the same way that the "tiramisu czech" that likes to say, permeate typical pastries with coffee or alcohol and make layers with a mass of cream and butter, in the case of this cake, the grandmother of our friend added strawberry, kiwi and bananas, it was a wonderful dessert as you can see in the photo.

While we spent the afternoon and sharing customs and known better our cultures we could try other typical Czech snack, some rolls stuffed with white sausage and pepper, also bread with ham with boiled egg, pepper and tomato.

As you can see the difference in traditions is huge but the basis of spending time with the family is the same. And it's a pleasure count with our job workers and friends, this was a so great experience, like all of it in Os Ave in Czech Republic.