Prague Journal

Monday, March 28, 2005.

This is the day that women in the Czech Republic dread, because many people insist in engaging in an old pagan tradition of “Easter birching,” a vestige of an old fertility rite that dates back to the Middle Ages. As the tradition goes, on the morning of Easter Monday, men and boys whip women of all ages, around the legs with a special whip (pomlázka) made out of twisted willow or “osier” twigs. The women reward the men for this with a painted Easter egg. The symbolism is pretty clear: the whipping, say Czechs, ensures the woman stays fertile and beautiful. No woman escapes: women of all ages get a whipping, from children to grandmothers. In fact, it’s considered rude to leave one of the women in a gathering out, even if she’s 70 years old. The whipping is supposed to be symbolic, more a gentle tap. We witnessed young boys chasing young girls when we drove around Bohemia seven years ago. There is less obnoxious behaviors in the city, where boys can’t easily go door-to-door and gang up on the village girls. However, there were some teenagers at our door this morning, offering to beat the woman of the house! I also saw several folks carrying pomlázky as they strolled through town this morning. Veena reported that she was gently whipped as she got off the tram.
Apparently, children finish school on “Ugly Wednesday” and start the Easter preparations. The following day, “Green Thursday,” boys from the village equip themselves with specially made wooden rattles, the “rehtacka.” They then walk through the village together, shaking their rattles vigorously so that the noise can be heard from afar. This rattling chases away Judas. The same procedure repeats on Good Friday and then on “White Saturday,” when boys also stop at every house and rattle until they are given money! Easter Sunday is a day of preparation for Easter Monday. Girls paint, color, and decorate eggs and boys prepare their Easter whips.
Traditionally, women get their revenge for the whipping by chucking cold water over the men. This is supposed to ensure good health. But sometimes the women end up getting the cold shower as well as the whipping. Perhaps this is the Czech version of Sadie Hawkins day. Young women wait for the special man, the one they like to come and whip them, and play hard-to-get and feign physical pain. Obviously, feminists have a lot of trouble with this holiday, since domestic violence is a serious problem in the Czech Republic. Under Czech law, beating your marital partner is not a crime unless she (or he) is so badly injured that she cannot work for at least seven days – and parliament has repeatedly rejected proposals to change the law. It is all part of the difficulty Czech women face in tackling feminism – so much so that there is a serious debate over what Western-style feminism can offer Czech women. In some ways, Czech society was ahead of its time on women's rights. More than 90 per cent of Czech women are in full-time employment: a legacy of communism, under which women were forced to work by law. And since the First World War more than half of university degrees go to women every year. On the other hand, women are generally paid less than men, especially in the public sector. Even women's names are a source of controversy. Women are not obligated to take their husband’s names when they marry, but if they do, they are required to add to their surnames the suffix -ova. This has resulted in Czech women who marry foreign men sporting such names as Smithova and Jonesova.
I met with Eunice for coffee – her company is closed today so she had time to meet early in the day – and then spent most of the afternoon at home working on the information she gave me to finish her case study. Rick went to his Czech class this evening, so we had an early dinner at home.

posted by JWinn @ 9:12 PM