Information

Things you may not have known about Polish Easter:

1. Preparations for Easter start a week before Ash Wednesday. On Thursday we have a Doughnut Day or Fat Thursday when we eat lots of doughnuts to prepare ourselves for lent period.
2. On Palm Sunday we prepare special palms (bouquets of fresh and dried plants in shape of branch) that we take to church for blessings.
3. One week before Easter we plant cress at homes to have it as a base of various Easter decorations. We also decorate our homes with birch fresh branches, catkins, daffodils, hyacinths and tulips. There are also of course many chicks, lambs, bunnies and Easter eggs decorations.
4. We also buy a lot of chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs for Easter. Easter Bunny brings children presents in small baskets on Easter Sunday morning. Still it is quite tricky creature as it often hides the presents either in flats and homes or gardens and children have to search for the gifts.
5. Religious people visit church on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
6. On Good Friday most of Poles abide straight lent during which they eat two small meals after which they are still hungry and only one bigger meal a day. Of course no meat is allowed.
7. No meat is allowable from Good Friday till Resurrection Mass on Saturday Night or Sunday Morning.
8. On Saturday Poles prepare Easter baskets with food and they go to church to bless them. They eat the food from the baskets only on ceremonious Sunday morning breakfast.
9. Easter baskets include bread, salt, specially painted Easter eggs, ham, white sausage, butter in shape of sheep, something sweet like traditional Mazurek or Babka.
10. There are some special Easter cakes such as Mazurek, Babka, Sernik, Pascha, Keks.
11. Special Easter dishes include: pâté, ham, żurek (soup made from fermented rye flour), white sausage, horseradish sauce, Tatar sauce, beetroot salad, vegetable salad, meat in aspic.
12. Easter is a family holiday during which families gather together especially on Easter Sunday breakfast, dinner and on Easter Monday dinner
13. On Easter Monday there is Śmingus Dyngus which is a game of spilling water on people, especially maidens to bring them luck in finding husbands.
14. In Poland only Easter Sunday and Monday are bank holidays. Good Friday and Maundy Thursday are ordinary working days.

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