From 15 March, the Museum of Ceramics at Mickiewicza Street is hosting the exhibition “Czech Easter Traditions”. The exhibition presents customs associated with the festive season, cultivated south of the Karkonosze. Despite close cultural ties, the celebrations of the Resurrection of the Lord in Poland and the Czech Republic differ from one another.
The exhibits, from the collections of the museums in Vrchlabí and Jilemnice, include rattles and large sugar eggs containing small figures of houses and people. The exhibition also features table decorations made of bread, including small rolls shaped like intertwined snakes. Bread decorations known as Judas breads were baked by housewives on Good Thursday, called Green Thursday in the Czech Republic.
An interesting exhibit is an Easter nativity scene with the Risen Jesus. This tradition is not entirely familiar in Poland.
The celebrations of individual holidays also differ. On Good Friday, [czes. Velký pátek] before sunrise, girls washed themselves in a stream or rubbed themselves with snow, which was meant to ensure their health and beauty.
On Holy Saturday, [czes. Bílá sobota] a “new” fire was lit in front of the church to provide purification and protection. The festive cycle ends with Easter Monday [czes. Velikonoční pondělí]. On that day, it was once customary to symbolically beat people with fresh, intertwined twigs called pomlázka in the Czech Republic (from the word omlazení, meaning “rejuvenation”). According to tradition, anyone struck with such a branch was to receive strength from nature awakening to new life.
The exhibition presenting Czech Easter traditions is accompanied by the photographic exhibition “Easter in Lower Silesia”. The photographs show traditions familiar to residents of our region: decorating Easter eggs, preparing festive baked goods and decorating a basket with blessed food. The photographs will be displayed on exhibition panels in the garden behind the Museum building.
Visiting the exhibitions is free of charge. These activities are carried out as part of the project “Gardens of Living Tradition – Protecting the Shared Heritage of the Polish-Czech Borderland”, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme Cross-Border Cooperation Czech Republic–Republic of Poland 2007–2013.
