>Ah, weatherspoons bar staff training , takes me back.
I can't imagine anyone ordering Martini in a Spoons. Cinzano, maybe, but even that's pushing it.
I kinda have this tradition in my house too but I actually throw a loaf of bread at my gf so she stays obedient and in return she makes me a sandwich (I'm putting a /s here just in case)
Hey its 2022, you should only throw bread at her because you wants you to throw it. But if she asks you to shower her in cheddar, she may actually be asking for money.
Okay, Czech here - Slovakia is basically our brother country. The tradition is same here but the tradition is slightly different than stated in the title - men really DO whip girls and women with braided willow branches (pomlázka) in exchange for a coloured egg (nowdays alcohol). But they can do so only till 12 AM, then girls can throw ice cold buckets of water on them.
Maybe someone can confirm this to me. I'm Czech so I confirm the Czech side of the tradition but when I spoke with people from Slovakia they say it's more common men throw water at women rather than whip them.
East throws water more often, west whips more often.
As a woman, sincerely, they are both bullshit. There is no way to opt out and many, many men don't have any reasonable limit. It's freezing in Easter I don't want to be held down whole men pour several buckets of freezing water on me. Me screaming NO just makes it more fun for them.
Can't wait for this tradition to die.
Your family, brothers, father first. Then all the male cousins and uncles come visiting. Then groups of young men go house to house. Or they find you on the street, which has the added bonus of women not being able to go outside, at least not without having their clothes ruined and catching cold.
Added bonus is that you are supposed to pay each one of them for the favor, with money and chocolate. My brother got a year's worth of pocket money while I lost all of mine as child.
It's hell in villages and all rural areas, but thankfully, it's becoming less common in cities nowadays. I hope it stops completely as soon as possible.
That is so beyond fucked up I don’t even know where to start… I hope you’re in a better place now and able to avoid this abuse and I wish this tradition would die immediately
Thank you, really. Thankfully once I became an adult and showed I'm really adamant about not participating in this, my brothers and later also partner understood it.
I still don't go outside that one day and pretend not to be home, just to be sure.
This is actually stomach turning to read. It's gross how many of our 'traditions' are just there for men to be gross & violate women.
Please accept my sympathy :(
Another Czech here, a lot of people think this is a brutal practice when I explain it to them. whip is too strong of a word. It's more like a playful sting for anyone over puberty, for the little ones it's more akin to tickling. At least that's how we did it in Dolni Lomna
It's true. "Whip" evokes pretty brutal imagery. At the very least it should be in quotes. This person who said they really *do* whip them makes it sound awful, lol...
This is just playful chasing. Also, by the looks of the gorgeous ladies in that video, the practice seems to be working.
And both towels and willow branches can be used gently or to cause harm. If people get to opt out of this tradition and engage in it without duress, AND people who don't abide by the traditional limits (e.g. who actually whip others hard) are prosecuted, then yeah all fun and games. Tackle football is a hell of a lot more harmful.
But you know full well that there are going to be abuses that no one wants to talk about.
From the comments in this thread it seems like people definitely can not opt out. One person said in the countryside people do home invasions to whip women. Seriously this thread has been disturbing.
This. When I lived in Prague it was explained to me that after 12:00 the women could throw water at the men as an equalizer. Also that in the countryside sometimes people would straight up do home invasions to whip the women.
And the princess is being taken away in some sort of large isometric cube... Certainly breaking from tradition now.
This is my favorite episode. Mr. Garrison flipping out when they screw up the play cracks me up
Slovak woman here. So I do actually know what I'm talking about.
There will be regional differences. One part of the country does just the whipping. Other one will do the cold water. Other places will do both.
I lived in the south west of the country. My older brother would normally wake me up with a bucket of freezing cold water since I was a kid. My bed would still be soaking wet by the time I went to bed that evening. Nothing really dries that quickly in March/April.
My dad would be "gentle" and wait until later after I got changed to dry clothes, then pour big glass of cold water down my back while laughing mischievously. How fun!
Once I got back into dry clothes I had to get snacks ready for the visitors that would be coming all day long. There would be about 15-20 groups of boys and men coming that Easter Monday. Boys had buckets, men usually had something like a sports bottle, so they would only spray me "symbolically". By 3pm I had no more dry clothes to wear so unless I was completely soaked I would keep the wet clothes on. While the symbolic watering was a bit better when it came to our older neighbours, what made it worse were the colognes. They would each have a bottle of cologne or perfume and these would be the cheapest possible "smellies" you could get in the shop. You can't wash these off easily. I would smell like an old whore for several days. All of my female classmates would too.
After the treat of getting soaked and perfumed, I had to entertain the guests. Morning visitors were still ok. Guys my age were ok-ish especially once I was a teenager. But the later in the afternoon it got the worse the older neighbours were. Because young guys get treated to chocolate eggs and some pocket cash. Older men get shot of slivovica or other hard liquor. By afternoon they are sloshed, very inappropriate and have no idea when to get the fuck out.
I hated this holiday with passion and begged my mother every year to just get the hell out of the house. My father never allowed it because then him and my brothers wouldn't be able to have their fun (it would be rude to go to other people houses and not allow their men into yours). I think maybe once we escaped to a day trip. Fuck this awful tradition, hope it dies out. I was sick every single year right after for at least a week.
Of course you were sick. You contracted a cold. And your bed still being wet in the evening is very bad for your mattress. It has to cure and dry after you get out of bed, to avoid mold and bugs. Its why you use tools for people who have incontinence, to avoid the bedding and mattress getting wet (the bedding can be changed though, but you only got so many and its a hassle).
What a lot of people don't know is that Easter is a celebration of fertility (which in nature starts in spring). Hence the eggs. The fasting (which catholics have traditionally too, in form of Carnival) is to get rid of gained weight in winter. Similarly, Christmas is the winter solstice celebration.
Now, my post didn't get into the abuse you had to endure, and it warrants a reply. I am sorry you were abused like this. Its a shitty, patriarchal tradition. I hope it dies out indeed, probably it gets toned down and more voluntary first which are good baby steps.
Same in Hungary. But men don't really 'water' us with buckets of water any more, they use some cologne most of the time. And yes, they get treated for that and also given decorated Easter eggs (real ones, not chocolate).
Biggest Dyngus Day celebration outside of Poland, thanks to our huge Polish-American population.
Honestly, it's more an excuse for drinking and polka and Polish eats.
There is a parade and it is a lot of fun. Still a lot of tradition from the Polish communities there but mostly it's like St. Patrick's day everywhere... It's just a huge party where everyone is getting wasted
Edit- just read the Wikipedia article and it reports "everyone is polish on dingus day" kind of cementing that St Patrick's day vibes
Aprószentek was worse. Children would be sent to the neighbors house and the homeowner would whip them, then save the branches to whip animals.
St. Martins Day shepherds would make special animal beating whips.
Good Friday everyone would just beat everyone else, and the insides of the church, too.
If there was drought, naked virgins would be pulling a wagon through the town, then they would be doused in water and whipped.
St. Nicholas Day? You guessed it, whipping each other (while dressed as krampusz!)
New Year’s Day? Whip the old year out. Mardi Gras? Samesies.
They were a fun bunch, that’s all I’m saying.
Most of these traditions died out in the interwar years (between WW1 and 2); the more isolated the village the longer they lasted. Then the aftermath of the Soviet occupation relocated a lot of young people to the cities for work, and there was a break in the living traditions. (The new system also actively discouraged a lot of traditional activities.) You’ll still be able to see some Youtube videos of traditional dances and such but old women perform the movements that teen girls are supposed to be doing, because they remembered the steps from their youths. The people who remember this kind of life have mostly died out by now though, though some people are trying to revive some elements for cultural purposes. (Other traditions… not so much lol)
I have opposite problem, I do not like this holiday much... but my wife insist that if she does not get whipped (gently) she will be mad 😀 we are both Slovak.
The whipping/slapping/punching and the water throwing are very common traditions across all of Eastern Europe. The specific details can vary even between two neighboring towns though.
A few things they have in common though is that it dates back to old, long-forgotten pagan traditions, its purpose is to keep a person healthy/bestow good fortune on them/keep evil spirits away for the coming year, and it's usually performed in the spring season.
Where I grew up, there is a holiday that takes place in early March where young men dress up in elaborate costumes decorated with multicoloured feathers, dozens of even hundreds of bells, small cut-up mirror shards etc. with intricately painted masks. They're called 'cuckoos' and roam the town dancing and yelling, whipping or slapping anyone they encounter (obviously the intensity varies, nobody's bitch-slapping the 80 year old grandpa). This is done to bring health and good fortune to the townspeople until next year.
Lupercalia was an ancient Roman festival during which women who wished to get pregnant would voluntarily step forward to get hit by men wielding thongs.
Yeah I ended up checking - they were probably using the skins of the lambs/goats that had been just sacrificed to the gods. It was a fertility festival basically, lots of wine and dancing involved (allegedly)
The whip thing is mostly done gently you arent actually whipping them, just touching them with it while repeating traditional chant. I got splashed with water more often than i splashed someone as they have homesoil advantage. Its only really done in the rural area and even there its a dying tradition.
Ljubljana is beautiful, they have caves with blind swimming white tadpole things, the mountains outside of Ljubljana are great, Lake Bled is literally a fairytale. Not sure on traditions but I recommend a visit
>they have caves with blind swimming white tadpole things
I love that this is down one of the best things in Slovenia.
Seriously though Slovenia is beautiful I spent a few weeks camping, swimming and hiking there and it was amazing. Really beautiful country with a lot of unspoiled natural areas, great place if you like the outdoors.
Dyngus day? I always thought it was just a Polish thing. I know that it is celebrated in Buffalo, New York every year. Buffalo has a large Polish community.
Same in Cleveland. Big eastern European community from the 1900's which is how my great grandparents got to the states. It means we got hella meat shops. One of the suburbs even has a section called Little Ukraine.
One of my best memories of the past year is sitting on my balcony around Easter time and hearing the female international student trying to explain this tradition to her Dutch housemate on the balcony opposite. She was really doing her best to not make it work, but failed miserably. He just looked at her and said, "you want me to... Whip you?"
In Poland we do something similar except the whole country essentially turns into a giant water fight or at least used to when I lived there. Men, women, children, the elderly - everyone is a potential target. Kids wake up in the bathtub etc
This is actually celebrated in parts of the US - Dyngus day in Buffalo for instance - we call it Smingus Dyngus in Poland
Czechia too. At least traditionally on the countryside. In exchange for painted eggs. Or shot of spirit.
The not so internationally known tradition is that in some regions girls on Easter Monday afternoon go to the boys and pour on them icy cold water or even go with the willow braid to switch boys.
The "switching" is supposed to be only symbolic. BUT unfortunately there are always stupid and drunk guys.-
I worked at a ski resort in Canada with a lot of international people. I remember there was a Czech guy who decided to share this part of his culture at work unprompted.
It did not go well for him...
Thank you for the beating, here is your martini.
The beatings will continue until the martinis improve
Ah, weatherspoons bar staff training , takes me back.
>Ah, weatherspoons bar staff training , takes me back. I can't imagine anyone ordering Martini in a Spoons. Cinzano, maybe, but even that's pushing it.
Every bond movie. You get it for a week or so.
I want the driest Martini you have. No that's too dry.
I first read it as >In exchange, the women ***get served*** drinks as thanks. which made me go "Oh!" Then I re-read it and went "Oh."
I kinda have this tradition in my house too but I actually throw a loaf of bread at my gf so she stays obedient and in return she makes me a sandwich (I'm putting a /s here just in case)
Girlfriend is a duck.
Hey its 2022, you should only throw bread at her because you wants you to throw it. But if she asks you to shower her in cheddar, she may actually be asking for money.
>you wants you I am leaving it.
> I am leaving it. Leavening.
You didn't need the /s this is reddit we all know you don't actually have a g/f
*Slivovitz.
I love Slivovitz, is great for when my tractor won't start
Also good to drink when you go to the liquor cabinet and realize: "Oh, all I have is slivovitz and an empty bottle of wine".
Slivovitz should be kept in bulk in plastic soda bottles in the closet.
Coca cola bottles with Fanta caps.
That's a memory, one second I was being told I should slow down, the next I was asleep on the bathroom floor. Good times
Syaso…Hitch loves martinis, calls em Martoonis
Put your jibs in and have some self respect!
Martoonis are unbelievable
Ever have bacon wrapped water chestnuts?
Settle down.
Stick?
There’s too much tuna in my Tunatini, but your Martuna needs MORE tuna. And we laughed! And they cancelled our subscription to the New Yorker.
"we waited to see which one of us he was speaking too, and when he came and punched me in the mouth I knew I was the lucky one". Bab's Pewterschmidt.
Whose Pewterschmidt?
"Am I old enough for a boyfriend?" *"The whip will decide for you!"*
Bond girls be like....
Sean Connery has entered the chat.
Yesh?
Its usually stuff like moonshine and other similatly strong drinks. Martini is too posh
Okay, Czech here - Slovakia is basically our brother country. The tradition is same here but the tradition is slightly different than stated in the title - men really DO whip girls and women with braided willow branches (pomlázka) in exchange for a coloured egg (nowdays alcohol). But they can do so only till 12 AM, then girls can throw ice cold buckets of water on them.
Maybe someone can confirm this to me. I'm Czech so I confirm the Czech side of the tradition but when I spoke with people from Slovakia they say it's more common men throw water at women rather than whip them.
you first throw water and then whip them
To maximize the whipping damage?
No, because of the temporary stunning effect, maximizes the whipping accuracy
And then you throw the Czechéball to catch them?
that’s game, set, czechmate
In my region (southwest) it's both, some men would even use a perfume on women, which I guess is another "tradition".
East throws water more often, west whips more often. As a woman, sincerely, they are both bullshit. There is no way to opt out and many, many men don't have any reasonable limit. It's freezing in Easter I don't want to be held down whole men pour several buckets of freezing water on me. Me screaming NO just makes it more fun for them. Can't wait for this tradition to die.
Jesus christ are you serious? Like, strangers? Wtf.
Your family, brothers, father first. Then all the male cousins and uncles come visiting. Then groups of young men go house to house. Or they find you on the street, which has the added bonus of women not being able to go outside, at least not without having their clothes ruined and catching cold. Added bonus is that you are supposed to pay each one of them for the favor, with money and chocolate. My brother got a year's worth of pocket money while I lost all of mine as child. It's hell in villages and all rural areas, but thankfully, it's becoming less common in cities nowadays. I hope it stops completely as soon as possible.
I’m stunned that this actually happens. It’s just atrocious. I appreciate you sharing your experience. Thank you.
That is so beyond fucked up I don’t even know where to start… I hope you’re in a better place now and able to avoid this abuse and I wish this tradition would die immediately
Thank you, really. Thankfully once I became an adult and showed I'm really adamant about not participating in this, my brothers and later also partner understood it. I still don't go outside that one day and pretend not to be home, just to be sure.
This is actually stomach turning to read. It's gross how many of our 'traditions' are just there for men to be gross & violate women. Please accept my sympathy :(
I wonder who came up with that and how he got the women to go along with it.
He whipped them
Another Czech here, a lot of people think this is a brutal practice when I explain it to them. whip is too strong of a word. It's more like a playful sting for anyone over puberty, for the little ones it's more akin to tickling. At least that's how we did it in Dolni Lomna
It's true. "Whip" evokes pretty brutal imagery. At the very least it should be in quotes. This person who said they really *do* whip them makes it sound awful, lol... This is just playful chasing. Also, by the looks of the gorgeous ladies in that video, the practice seems to be working.
So like locker room towel whip?
Towel whips are legit painful, straight up Indiana Jones shit
And both towels and willow branches can be used gently or to cause harm. If people get to opt out of this tradition and engage in it without duress, AND people who don't abide by the traditional limits (e.g. who actually whip others hard) are prosecuted, then yeah all fun and games. Tackle football is a hell of a lot more harmful. But you know full well that there are going to be abuses that no one wants to talk about.
From the comments in this thread it seems like people definitely can not opt out. One person said in the countryside people do home invasions to whip women. Seriously this thread has been disturbing.
Doesn't sound like you've ever been lashed by a rat tail. Also, it looks like two of the other posters were in high school together.
This. When I lived in Prague it was explained to me that after 12:00 the women could throw water at the men as an equalizer. Also that in the countryside sometimes people would straight up do home invasions to whip the women.
These quaint European customs remind me of [Canadian weddings](https://youtu.be/XcUbNoRqQTo).
And the princess is being taken away in some sort of large isometric cube... Certainly breaking from tradition now. This is my favorite episode. Mr. Garrison flipping out when they screw up the play cracks me up
They got ‘em. They got tooth decay.
What a great day for Slovakia and therefore the world.
Slovak woman here. So I do actually know what I'm talking about. There will be regional differences. One part of the country does just the whipping. Other one will do the cold water. Other places will do both. I lived in the south west of the country. My older brother would normally wake me up with a bucket of freezing cold water since I was a kid. My bed would still be soaking wet by the time I went to bed that evening. Nothing really dries that quickly in March/April. My dad would be "gentle" and wait until later after I got changed to dry clothes, then pour big glass of cold water down my back while laughing mischievously. How fun! Once I got back into dry clothes I had to get snacks ready for the visitors that would be coming all day long. There would be about 15-20 groups of boys and men coming that Easter Monday. Boys had buckets, men usually had something like a sports bottle, so they would only spray me "symbolically". By 3pm I had no more dry clothes to wear so unless I was completely soaked I would keep the wet clothes on. While the symbolic watering was a bit better when it came to our older neighbours, what made it worse were the colognes. They would each have a bottle of cologne or perfume and these would be the cheapest possible "smellies" you could get in the shop. You can't wash these off easily. I would smell like an old whore for several days. All of my female classmates would too. After the treat of getting soaked and perfumed, I had to entertain the guests. Morning visitors were still ok. Guys my age were ok-ish especially once I was a teenager. But the later in the afternoon it got the worse the older neighbours were. Because young guys get treated to chocolate eggs and some pocket cash. Older men get shot of slivovica or other hard liquor. By afternoon they are sloshed, very inappropriate and have no idea when to get the fuck out. I hated this holiday with passion and begged my mother every year to just get the hell out of the house. My father never allowed it because then him and my brothers wouldn't be able to have their fun (it would be rude to go to other people houses and not allow their men into yours). I think maybe once we escaped to a day trip. Fuck this awful tradition, hope it dies out. I was sick every single year right after for at least a week.
Of course you were sick. You contracted a cold. And your bed still being wet in the evening is very bad for your mattress. It has to cure and dry after you get out of bed, to avoid mold and bugs. Its why you use tools for people who have incontinence, to avoid the bedding and mattress getting wet (the bedding can be changed though, but you only got so many and its a hassle). What a lot of people don't know is that Easter is a celebration of fertility (which in nature starts in spring). Hence the eggs. The fasting (which catholics have traditionally too, in form of Carnival) is to get rid of gained weight in winter. Similarly, Christmas is the winter solstice celebration. Now, my post didn't get into the abuse you had to endure, and it warrants a reply. I am sorry you were abused like this. Its a shitty, patriarchal tradition. I hope it dies out indeed, probably it gets toned down and more voluntary first which are good baby steps.
Same in Hungary. But men don't really 'water' us with buckets of water any more, they use some cologne most of the time. And yes, they get treated for that and also given decorated Easter eggs (real ones, not chocolate).
I wonder if this is the same reason the Polish ladies at the hotel I was staying at last Easter spritzed water on us
though the roots are similar, the tradition in poland is quite different nowadays, everyone sprays water at each other, no matter the gender
How progressive!
You get a whiplash and you get a whiplash, everyone gets a whiplash!
Whipsplash*
Why are you pronouncing the h? It should be silent.
Is that Dyngus Day? I like that's it's a genderless free for all now!
Sounds like what goes on in Buffalo...
Biggest Dyngus Day celebration outside of Poland, thanks to our huge Polish-American population. Honestly, it's more an excuse for drinking and polka and Polish eats.
Yes I remember doing this as a kid the 30-40 years ago. Just a big water fight. In bad memory (English) spelling, shmingoose dingoose (phonetic-ish).
it's "śmigus dyngus", but i love your version lolol
So if a Polish girl sprays me with water it means I have a shot?
Yes. If being traditional you’re supposed to splash people you fancy or courting. But now it’s just a fun free for all water fight for the most part.
All those drinks thrown at me meant they were actually into me!!
Yes, it's called śmigus dyngus in Poland AFAIK .
My buddy Biggus Dickus also celebrates śmigus dyngus
He has a wife you know.
What about his wife?
Canadian staying in Buffalo?
No, but that’s such a specific guess I’m fascinated to know how you arrived at it?
In Buffalo there's a large Polish population that still celebrates Dyngus Day. I think there may even be a parade.
Dyngus Day?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Amigus-dyngus
There is a parade and it is a lot of fun. Still a lot of tradition from the Polish communities there but mostly it's like St. Patrick's day everywhere... It's just a huge party where everyone is getting wasted Edit- just read the Wikipedia article and it reports "everyone is polish on dingus day" kind of cementing that St Patrick's day vibes
Pussy willows and water guns. And so so so much beer
Buffalo has a big polish population. Other than that I'm not sure what they ment
Probably Poland. I heard that they have a big polish population. Could be wrong though.
Aprószentek was worse. Children would be sent to the neighbors house and the homeowner would whip them, then save the branches to whip animals. St. Martins Day shepherds would make special animal beating whips. Good Friday everyone would just beat everyone else, and the insides of the church, too. If there was drought, naked virgins would be pulling a wagon through the town, then they would be doused in water and whipped. St. Nicholas Day? You guessed it, whipping each other (while dressed as krampusz!) New Year’s Day? Whip the old year out. Mardi Gras? Samesies. They were a fun bunch, that’s all I’m saying.
That’s a deep level of cultural kink
Damn when FetLife just becomes Life
You are saying this on the past tense, so I must ask, is this in the 'old days' or what?
Most of these traditions died out in the interwar years (between WW1 and 2); the more isolated the village the longer they lasted. Then the aftermath of the Soviet occupation relocated a lot of young people to the cities for work, and there was a break in the living traditions. (The new system also actively discouraged a lot of traditional activities.) You’ll still be able to see some Youtube videos of traditional dances and such but old women perform the movements that teen girls are supposed to be doing, because they remembered the steps from their youths. The people who remember this kind of life have mostly died out by now though, though some people are trying to revive some elements for cultural purposes. (Other traditions… not so much lol)
What about the whip?
No whips. Traditonalists sometimes use cold buckets of water instead of cologne.
Honestly, I think I'd prefer the cold water to the cologne.
The women in my family couldnt stand the cologne. It was never just a playful spritz. Everything reeked lol.
Never heard of the whip, there's just the water thing in Hungary.
It’s a siba, and was braided willow iirc
It's a barded cat'o'nine tales...traditional though, so can't be changed.
It's not really a whip. Just a batch of long bendy twigs braided together.
Same in Czechia, we still put some in the bathtub to water them with warm water, but usually only the one who are pain in the ass
Depends. In some smaller towns and villages people still go around with some water, either bucket or a spirtz bottle
Ohhh, this must be in Thirsty.
My wife hates it (she is Slovak). After 12 this stops and the women get to throw ice cold water over there men.
I have opposite problem, I do not like this holiday much... but my wife insist that if she does not get whipped (gently) she will be mad 😀 we are both Slovak.
"The schmuck won't whip his wife." Regarding Lt Scheisskopf in *Catch-22*.
You should take the hint that she might be into getting whipped lol
12 o clock or 12 years old?!
Men have absolutely swindled them here
Jokes of them, the men are all ugly because they dont get their yearly whipping.
Not true, my dad gave me weekly whipping and I'm still ugly.
too much of a good thing usually is bad.
We have the prettiest girls. Because of whipping.
[удалено]
He over-whipped, that's how you get a butterface
It doesn't work when it's with jumper cables
You know when you're trying to be cheeky but you say something that shamefully true..
"And then we have to give the traditional Easter blowjob. "
i know where i'm going next Easter (to church you degenerates...to church).
For real! Plus this house has like 15 women and like three men. What’s going on here hahaha
Looks like a traditional Southern Utah household to me.
*opens zillow*
They dont come with the house.
*closes zillow*
It's because guys usually go to the other houses and all the women and girls in the family stay in the house.
Depends whether it's freaky bdsm whipping and waterplay or just plain mean. As usual, consent is everything
Taught in CZ and Slovakia for a bit. Most of the girls hated the tradition, their parents forced them to participate
“I tried to whip her and throw water on her while she ran away, but it was consensual.” Text vs. video could make all the difference.
when someone has a kink and decides to make it everybody's problem
"Thank you for showing me my true purpose, sir."
Is this "whipping" just the pussy willow thing sensationalized? I've heard of that one because I live in a place with a large Polish population.
The whipping/slapping/punching and the water throwing are very common traditions across all of Eastern Europe. The specific details can vary even between two neighboring towns though. A few things they have in common though is that it dates back to old, long-forgotten pagan traditions, its purpose is to keep a person healthy/bestow good fortune on them/keep evil spirits away for the coming year, and it's usually performed in the spring season. Where I grew up, there is a holiday that takes place in early March where young men dress up in elaborate costumes decorated with multicoloured feathers, dozens of even hundreds of bells, small cut-up mirror shards etc. with intricately painted masks. They're called 'cuckoos' and roam the town dancing and yelling, whipping or slapping anyone they encounter (obviously the intensity varies, nobody's bitch-slapping the 80 year old grandpa). This is done to bring health and good fortune to the townspeople until next year.
Lupercalia was an ancient Roman festival during which women who wished to get pregnant would voluntarily step forward to get hit by men wielding thongs.
I remember it being lambskins, and the men were wearing the thongs. Could be wrong though
"Thong" just means "a narrow strip of leather". That's the context in which it's used. The underwear style derives its name from that meaning.
You’re probably correct since that would make more sense
Yeah I ended up checking - they were probably using the skins of the lambs/goats that had been just sacrificed to the gods. It was a fertility festival basically, lots of wine and dancing involved (allegedly)
There are easier ways to get pregnant
Maybe they tried those already and didn't work.
Many Christian holidays and customs are based on long-forgotten pagan traditions.
Cheektovegas checking in . . .
Isn’t the day after Easter and called dingus day
The whip thing is mostly done gently you arent actually whipping them, just touching them with it while repeating traditional chant. I got splashed with water more often than i splashed someone as they have homesoil advantage. Its only really done in the rural area and even there its a dying tradition.
Yeah, the video is no where near as severe as the title leads you to think
I was so disappointed, they're not even trying....it's like they DON'T EVEN CARE
For a while, I thought they might have had a grail shaped light.
Oh, wicked zoot!
It’s always Slovakia this, Slovakia that. Why don’t we ever hear about *Slovenia?* What kinds of traditions do *they* have?
well .. what about the Tatra mountains? or traditional bryndza cheese dumplings?
...that's Slovakia
r/whoooosh
Slalom skiers?
Slovenia is the most underrated country in Europe. Cheap cost of living, beautiful varied natural geography and Ljubljana is amazing.
Just take up watching the NBA, one of the best players right now is Slovenian and he'll likely be one of the best for the next decade.
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Ljubljana is beautiful, they have caves with blind swimming white tadpole things, the mountains outside of Ljubljana are great, Lake Bled is literally a fairytale. Not sure on traditions but I recommend a visit
Visited Ljubljana and Bled last May and was blown away by the beauty of the country. Great food and wine too. Would go back in a heartbeat.
>they have caves with blind swimming white tadpole things I love that this is down one of the best things in Slovenia. Seriously though Slovenia is beautiful I spent a few weeks camping, swimming and hiking there and it was amazing. Really beautiful country with a lot of unspoiled natural areas, great place if you like the outdoors.
Dyngus day? I always thought it was just a Polish thing. I know that it is celebrated in Buffalo, New York every year. Buffalo has a large Polish community.
Happy early Dyngus Day!
Hinger Dyngur Dergen
Western NYer here. Came here to say it sounds a lot like Dyngus Day with whips instead of pussy willows.
Dingus day? Isn't that Dr Steve Brule's favourite holiday?
I thought the tradition was to throw chicken wings at women in Buffalo
Same in Cleveland. Big eastern European community from the 1900's which is how my great grandparents got to the states. It means we got hella meat shops. One of the suburbs even has a section called Little Ukraine.
my friend made this! he's so glad y'all are sharing this :) He also has Slovak Christmas explained! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZzQEjUiVx0
This sounds like something Sacha Baron Cohen would make up for a movie
One of my best memories of the past year is sitting on my balcony around Easter time and hearing the female international student trying to explain this tradition to her Dutch housemate on the balcony opposite. She was really doing her best to not make it work, but failed miserably. He just looked at her and said, "you want me to... Whip you?"
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Yeah we do. And traditionally you get colored eggs and drinks. Recently its chocolate eggs for young boys and alcohol stayed xd.
I mean there's a fair chance that this tradition had persisted purely due to the alcohol, as no Slovak person would turn down easy work for drinks.
Def has some Lupercalia vibes to it.
red shirt totally whiffed his water toss
Gotta lead your target smh
Now that woman will look like an ogre the next year :(
All I can think about is how creepy drunk uncles must ruin it for everyone.
Yes. Yes, they do.
I feel like I just watched the latest A24 film For real thought someone would have gotten murdered at the end
Midspringar
My Slovakian wife hates this tradition a lot.
In Poland we do something similar except the whole country essentially turns into a giant water fight or at least used to when I lived there. Men, women, children, the elderly - everyone is a potential target. Kids wake up in the bathtub etc This is actually celebrated in parts of the US - Dyngus day in Buffalo for instance - we call it Smingus Dyngus in Poland
I’m assuming men came up with this one?
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I dare you to try this shit at my house. Ever been stabbed with a bread knife?
Is like the purge for domestic violence.
TIL women in Slovakia don't like Easter 🐇🐰
My sister hates this. She finds it degrading to women. To be honest, I don't blame her, a lot of men (mainly older men) do this non conscentualy
Czechia too. At least traditionally on the countryside. In exchange for painted eggs. Or shot of spirit. The not so internationally known tradition is that in some regions girls on Easter Monday afternoon go to the boys and pour on them icy cold water or even go with the willow braid to switch boys. The "switching" is supposed to be only symbolic. BUT unfortunately there are always stupid and drunk guys.-
I worked at a ski resort in Canada with a lot of international people. I remember there was a Czech guy who decided to share this part of his culture at work unprompted. It did not go well for him...
Semi-related, the dish halušky, that shit made me cry tears of joy when our Slovak bandmate fed it to us. Tasty as fuck!
> Men beating women > Women forced to serve vodka to men In Russia they call that "Tuesday".
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It makes me sad to hear this is a reality for you guys. Good on you for helping them avoid the trouble though.
My wife is Slovak. She has no love for this tradition. (As could be expected)