The Prague Post Online: Tempo: Tradition takes a whipping

May 17th, 2008

Reader's Survey^NEW Endowment Fund Book of Lists ONLINE Reservations Classifieds Subscriptions

Tradition takes a whipping

Around Town

March 19th, 2008 issue

Based on shopkeepers’ reports, there may not be much pomlázka whipping going on this year.

Or maybe it’s just the bad weather putting a damper on sales of the braided willow sticks, according to kiosk proprietors selling them at Easter markets in Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. It doesn’t help that this year the holiday is the earliest it has been in almost a century.

As many as 140,000 tourists are expected to spend up to 2 billion Kč ($124.5 million) in Prague for Easter this year, according to Czech Tourism Agency estimates.

The pagan fertility rite of whipping women to keep them fertile and beautiful on Easter Monday actually dates to the Middle Ages. Boys and men go from house to house reciting Easter rhymes to get treats such as chocolate, eggs and shots of slivovice.

In recent years, few people have been out on the streets of Prague in the morning, which is when the ritual happens. Many girls say they hide to avoid being targeted.

“Even guys are buying them less and less. It seems the villages don’t want to follow the traditions,” says Maria Studničková, who runs a kiosk on Old Town Square with her husband, Jaroslav Studnička. The family owns FontanaArt, a company based in a Moravian town about 50 kilometers (32 miles) outside of Strážnice that’s famous for keeping such traditions alive.

“We have sold just a few of them so far,” Studničková says, as customers browse her wide selection of hand-painted Easter eggs. The family has brought 200 of the handmade switches to sell — furry, white pussy-willow pieces still stick out from the braiding.

At a kiosk at the bottom of Wenceslas Square, colored eggs are moving faster than switches — just six of them with colorful paper streamers have sold on this particular day, says saleswoman Lucia Motlová.

Could the drop-off in sales have anything to do with the fact that some women don’t like the tradition?

Zdena Kuncová, who runs kiosk No. 35 back on Old Town Square shrugs when asked the question.

“We are from south Moravia,” she says, echoing Studničková. “We like our traditions.”

But even Kuncová admits that she focuses more on the brightly colored eggs, which are sometimes given as gifts in return for the whipping, but which also sell like hotcakes as souvenirs to visitors from other countries.

In fact, her business has grown so big that Kuncová now has 30 people painting eggs and sells them around the globe year-round.

“People call it a hobby, but they are very difficult to make,” she says.

A couple of stalls down, Eva Králová, another kiosk seller, complains about the gusty, cloudy weather keeping shoppers from lingering for long. She shies away from talking about any controversy affiliated with the pomlázky, and the ones she has for sale are more ornamental-looking, with real cloth ribbons.

But two Russian tourists visiting her stall seem completely unfazed by any more complicated symbolism in the sticks, smiling and showing how the stick should be used to spank females.

“Russian men love to do this,” says Anna Dykhno. “It’s a gift for our son.”

Dykhno points out that, for Russians and others from former communist countries, religion and such traditions were discouraged. Now that the religious observances are big again, it’s important not to forget the pagan parts as well, she says.

Jaroslav Studnička agrees.

“We want to keep people in the habit of buying these. Even the kids,” Studničkova says.

— Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Reader's comments:

add your comment

[15:57 01/04/2008] : My girlfriend is Czech and spent Easter Monday there this year. She was spanked by 30 men and boys from her village. Some are friends of her parents who sometimes let their sons spank her too. Others are simply guys who knock at the door.
Although she doesn't like it, she accepts it as tradition and says that the guys have rights to do it. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn't. She says it's not so sexy, she just turns so they can have access to her butt and lets them do it.
It's usually about five or six spanks from each person. Her mom and sister are also spanked.

Mike Thomas T
cardiff

Note: Comments that include profanity, personal attacks or any other inappropriate material are prohibited.

Add your comment

Most e-mailed articles
White power Freewheeling An American classic

Related articles
Energetic healing

Most visited in Book of Lists

The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.