People’s Easter today is mainly associated with the Monday craze. However, there were actually many more traditional customs. On Good Friday, magic threads were spun, on White Saturday processions of carolers with the treacherous Judas went through the villages, and in some regions they even had special Easter nativity scenes. They remembered old customs at the weekend in the open-air museum of folk buildings in Kouřimi.
Among other things, the ethnographic program at the Museum of Folk Buildings in Kouřima also recalled the “secret” symbolic speech of lovers, hidden in the decoration of Easter eggs. Decorated eggs were not prepared by many girls and women, they used to be intended only for a narrow circle of carolers. Undecorated eggs were usually intended for neighborhood children and unplanned visitors.
For lovers, decoration was of great importance: If a boy received an egg decorated with hearts, the girl showed him that she liked him. And when she still tied a red scarf around his neck, she said that she would like him to propose to her soon.
If the egg was decorated with pictures of flowers, it told the boy that love was fading and it would be good to do something about it. And if there was a cupcake, it was bad. The girl was making it clear that the boy would rather not go after her.
Tags: Carols Judas nativity scenes magic thread Folk Easter customs openair museum
