Velikonoce

A.k.a. Easter.

The Czechs have a very interesting take on Easter so I'll tell you about it. They think that it's funny that we hide eggs and then go look for them, instead they whip each other... much more logical. Anyways, the guys make these whips out of willow branches (see pictures on Facebook) and then they go into town and whip the girls to ensure a healthy year. When you hit the girl she is supposed to give you something like chocolate or alcohol. A Rotarian invited my host family and I to go to her house and see how the whips are made and so that I could have my very own. It was extremely interesting to see and to learn how they're made it's a very complex process. First you need a minimum of twelve willow branches and then you take another and wrap it around the bottom, binding all twelve together. Next you take four of the twelve and bend them into a helix shape and then make it stick to the rest of the whip. Finally, you braid the remaining eight branches together and tie it together at the top with a bow. It doesn't sound very complex when reading about it, but it is in real life.

So on Easter Monday we went over to all the Grandparents' houses and whipped the grandmas, female cousins, and aunts and they gave us a lot of chocolate and goodies. Afterwards we sat around and had coffee and wine and talked about Easter and how different it is from Easter in America.

Way before this, on Saturday I think, my host mother and I dyed eggs. For those of you who don't know, my third host mother is an art teacher at a local school so she knew how to paint the eggs and all the detaily stuff. The dyes here work much better than the ones in America I noticed. I was given the task of blowing the yoke out of the egg so that it could be painted which ended with a cup full of egg insides and me all out of breath. Next my host mother melted some crayon bits in order to paint with the wax and then she got down to business. She painted a bunch (See pictures on Facebook) and then she gave me an orange one to keep, which I really like. I sat and took pictures, not being the artsy fartsy type myself. It was a nice Easter overall, I got to know a lot of my extended host family which was nice. Easter marks the last school break until the end of the year which means that we're getting close to the end. One trip I forgot to add to my list last post is the school trip we take. Each class takes a trip together for three days near the end of the year so I have that to look forward to as well. I hope you all had a great Easter, I know I did!