Christian traditions

Shrovetide

A three-day festival before Ash Wednesday, which begins the 40 days of Lent, which ends on Easter. This feast was movable in the same way as Easter (it could happen anytime between February 1 and March 7). The preparations for Shrovetide – on so-called Fat Thursday – were often preceded by a feast following the slaughtering of a pig.  The traditional meal was roast pork with cabbage. On this day, a person was supposed to eat and drink as much as possible in order for him to have his full strength throughout the year.

The main carnival entertainment began on Shrove Sunday. First there was a sumptuous lunch. This was followed by a party with dancing, which continued until morning. And the entertainment and dancing continued on Shrove Monday. In many villages, a so-called “husbands’ ball” was held, which was only for married men and women. In many places, people also believed that the height a farmer’s wife jumped while dancing would be the height that the grain would grow the next year.

The feast culminated in Shrove Tuesday, when masque processions and theater performances were held. We have written reports of the Shrovetide dances of Bohemia and Moravia from as far back as the 13th century, but these festivities are definitely older. Many scholars link the dance of Shrovetide masques with pre-Christian pagan ceremonies. It is known that the Bohemian kings of this period also prepared feasts, to which they not only invited nobles, but also later invited representatives of the city burghers.

Shrovetide processions are still part of folklore celebrations in the Czech Republic.

Passion Week (Holy Week)

The last week of the 40 days of Lent is called Passion Week, in memory of Christ’s suffering. All the ceremonies in this week are of a mournful nature. The Passion of St. Mark is read on the Tuesday and the Passion of St. Luke is read on the Wednesday. In this week, youths walked with clappers and rattles, whose sounds replaced the ringing of bells, which according to the belief of the time departed to Rome and therefore didn’t ring. 

Spy Wednesday was the first of the Passion Week before Easter Sunday. It was called ugly, black or sooty Sunday, because chimneys were swept. According to popular tradition, anyone who frowned or scowled would scowl on every Wednesday of the year.

Many traditions were associated with Maundy Thursday: People got up very early on this day, and the family said their prayers. They washed themselves in dew, because they believed it prevented ailments of the neck and other illnesses. In some places this tradition was not observed until Good Friday. Housewives got up early on Maundy Thursday in order to have the house swept before sunrise. They carried the sweepings to a crossroads so that no fleas would remain in the house. Anyone who eats bread smeared with honey before sunrise on this day is protected against snakebites and wasp stings. “Judas” pastries were baked, which consisted of specially shaped ceremonial bread made from leavened dough. Once again, it was good for one’s health to eat these daubed in honey. One is not supposed to lend someone money or have a fight with anyone on Maundy Thursday in order to ensure that people avoid all quarrels and conversely that money finds its way to them.

Good Friday is imbued with great sadness. No mass is held and the church service only consists of reading texts and singing. An important part of the devotions is the unveiling and honoring of the Holy Cross. The initially simple and restrained nature of the liturgical celebrations was subsequently modified, particularly by the Jesuits, who promoted the establishment of the Holy Sepulchre. While this originally only consisted of a cross, they supplanted it with a monstrance covered in a veil with flowers and many candles around it. They put a statue representing the dead Christ in the cavity under the altar.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, this custom became widespread. In the Baroque era of exalted passion and mystic symbolism, cantatas were composed in honor of the dead Christ. The Jesuits introduced Passion plays. In certain areas, Passion plays became a great and immensely attractive spectacle. In Horice na Sumave, these were performed in German until the First World War and people came from far and wide to watch them. A belief in the magical power of the earth became associated with Good Friday, as did the miracles that occurred on this day. According to popular belief, the ground opened up to reveal hidden treasures for a short time. Consequently, on the evening of Good Friday, treasure hunters could be seen in forests and at castle ruins and other abandoned places. One was also not allowed to turn the earth on this day, so no work was done in the fields.

Holy Saturday is the last of the 40 days of Lent. In Czech, it is known as Bila sobota, or White Saturday, and it was named after the white clothing of those who were baptized on this day. Holy Saturday was not a liturgical day in the Early Christian world. Only night-time church services or vigils were held. A vigil was actually the period (the day and night) or “eve” before major holidays. Before these occasions, a new fire was ceremonially lit and blessed, which was taken to the church with the aid of a paškál (an Easter candle made from real beeswax). The blessing of the fire soon became a ceremony. In these lands, the fire was blessed before the entrance to the church and in the popular milieu it was known as the “burning of Judas.”  The day culminated in a ceremonial “Resurrection,” a ritual in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During the ceremony of blessing the fire before the entrance to the church, which was done by a priest, the common people especially looked forward to its being extinguished because they believed that the cinders had magical powers. Anyone who owned a field was supposed to be at the burning of Judas. As soon as the edge of the fire burnt out, it was necessary to throw a few cinders into water brought in a completely new jug.  Anything that was then sprinkled with this water was safe against fire and natural disasters. People also gave this water to their livestock to prevent them from falling ill that year.

The custom of carrying candles to church, which have been blessed by being lit from the sacred Easter paškál, has been preserved to this day.

Easter

During mass on Easter Sunday, the priest blesses food that has been brought (lamb, Easter cake, eggs, bread, wine). This consecrated food is taken home again by housewives and ceremonially eaten by the family during a festive lunch. It was believed that anyone who got lost would find their way home when they remembered whom they had eaten Easter lamb with. In East Bohemia, part of the consecrated food was taken to the fields, the garden and the well in order to ensure a good harvest and an adequate supply of good water.

From the point of view of the Bohemian people, Easter Monday was the most important day of the Easter cycle even though it was not connected with any significant liturgical acts. This was the day of Easter feasting and of the Monday whipping. This custom itself is probably of very ancient origin, just like the decorating of eggs (known as kraslice, or painted/dyed/decorated Easter eggs). Originally, it probably concerned a magic ritual in which only adults participated. It only became a pleasurable diversion over the course of time. Young lads went from house to house looking for girls (later mostly children) with Easter sticks of wicker adorned with ribbons. They flogged the girls and the women in the house with these. They gave congratulations and received painted eggs.

This basic pattern of Easter flogging had a number of local variants. In many places, it was the custom that the girl would return the compliment and go around with an Easter stick on the Tuesday. In some places, in place of the stick, they poured water on the boys so that they would be invigorated. In many villages, it was an age-old custom to lie in ambush for girls early on Monday morning and to whip them so that they would be healthy for the entire year as well as cheerful and above all hardworking. The memoirs of the Prague preacher Konrad Waldhauser, who lived in the 14th century, bear witness to the age-old nature of the Easter whippings and the unaltered form they have enjoyed for centuries. He attests that on Easter Monday and Tuesday spouses and lovers whipped each other with rods and also flogged each other by hand. Those who were sleepy or slothful were supposedly thrown into water early in the morning or at least had water poured over them.

Advent

The name of this period comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “arrival.” It concerns the period of the arrival or birth of Jesus Christ, who is perceived as the Savior or Messiah. The Advent period lasts four weeks and is a time of fasting, when old Bohemian Advent matins are sung at morning masses.

It culminates in Christmas, the annual Christian feast in memory of the birth of Jesus Christ. This actually replaced the pre-Christian winter solstice festival. December 25 is the feast of the Nativity (Christmas Day), which is preceded by Christmas Eve. The following feast days also pertain to Christmas: the feast of St. Stephen (December 26), the Sunday feast of the Holy Family, the feast of the Holy Innocents (December 28, a commemoration of the children massacred by Herod), the Solemnity of Mary, Holy Mother of God (January 1, New Year’s Day), the feast of the Epiphany (January 6) with its reference to the arrival in Bethlehem of wise men from the east (the Three Kings), and the feast of the Baptism of Christ the following Sunday, which brings Christmas to a close.

Christmas