Easter Traditions

Marek Mikos

Kraków Culture

The Orthodox Easter greeting is “Christ is risen!”, and the response simply confirms it: “Truly He is risen!” The most important event in the Christian tradition is present in the customs and traditions of Kraków and Małopolska.
Church celebrations, folk fetes, festivals, exhibitions, publications and traditional events make the period a magical time to be in our city. And for observant Christians it is a sacred time of contemplating the mystery of Jesus’ passion and resurrection.

Waiting for Easter

The traditional Polish Easter table bears hard-boiled eggs (dyed or decorated with intricate patterns), smoked sausage and other cold cuts, sour rye soup, fresh bread and butter, horseradish sauce, myriad seasonal cakes and everything your heart desires. Many of the delicacies we’ll be stocking up on in the run-up to Easter can be found at the St Joseph’s Fair at the Small Market Square (17–26 March) and the Easter Fair at the Main Market Square (30 March–10 April). Their main attraction, however, is folk handicrafts such as table centrepieces, baskets, palms, candles, tablecloths, napkins, and of course decorated Easter eggs. Both events are accompanied by concerts, demonstrations of traditional customs and presentations of regional handicraft.
And let’s not forget that the Ethnographic Museum of Kraków holds an extensive collection of almost nine thousand traditional decorated Easter eggs from Poland, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary, with some of the oldest items dating back over a century! Over 300 painted Easter eggs and Easter palms and toys are also on display at the permanent exhibition at the former Kazimierz City Hall.
Villages near Kraków cultivate a different custom marking Palm Sunday: Pucheroki. In Bibice, Zielonki, Trojanowice and Tomaszowice young boys clad in sheepskin coats tied around the waist with twine and with faces daubed with soot go from home to home singing songs and asking for eggs, snacks and small offerings.
In some places, the Misteria of Jesus’ passion are celebrated through many traditional celebrations during Holy Week. The most famous, drawing crowds of pilgrims and tourists from Poland and abroad, follow processions along paths around the extensive hilly area of the sanctuary in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. Celebrations of Holy Week start on Palm Sunday with a re-enactment of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on a donkey, and close on Good Friday with the Way of the Cross and staged scenes of His passion. 

Around Easter

The Easter weekend itself also abounds with traditions and living customs, reflected in many cultural events. After the blessed feast for body and soul on Easter Sunday comes the time for Dyngus Day. The Easter Monday custom dates back to ancient Slavic days, when young people drenched one another in water to mark the coming of spring. Cracovians also flock to the Emmaus indulgence fair at the Church of the Holy Saviour and the Norbertine Convent in Zwierzyniec. Since year, on the initiative of the Department of Culture of the City of Kraków and implemented by the Kraków Cultural Forum, the event has been reviving the festive atmosphere from a century ago: the dazzling fair abounds with stalls selling folk toys and handmade sweets. Make sure you get a water pistol in case you get ambushed by overenthusiastic Dyngus participants!
The most popular Easter decorations found at the indulgence fair are Emmaus trees of life – painted branches adorned with carved, colourful leaves and tiny birds on springs; once upon a time, they were made by local carpenters and stonemasons during the fallow winter months. The Museum of Krakow recalls the tradition by hosting the 9th competition for the most beautiful Emmaus tree (post-competition exhibition at the Krzysztofory Palace, 10 April – 14 May).
Easter Monday has always been (and still is) a traditional day for visiting friends and family. But would you want to be visited by Siuda Baba? The sooty, unkempt character, festooned with necklaces made of potatoes, wanders from home to home in Wieliczka and the nearby Lednica Górna. The role was always performed by young men who smear soot over people in the houses they visit – the custom is said to bring luck and banish winter for another year.
The Tuesday after Easter features the Traditional Rękawka Festival on Lasota Hill. Recalling pagan traditions of bringing food to be blessed by spirits of the ancestors, some of the customs involved locals rolling eggs down the slope of the Krakus Mound. Over time, Rękawka has become a fete with traditional festive attractions. In 2001, the Podgórze Cultural Centre decided to revive some of the ancient pagan rituals, and ever since it has been working with a local re-enactment society to show what life might have been like for early-Mediaeval Slavs.
All these dazzling traditions, many of them dating back to pre-Christian times, create a unique atmosphere of joy of resurrection and the coming spring.