Wielkanoc w Polsce

Wesołych Świąt!  Happy Holidays.  Easter in Poland is a very big deal; both religiously and traditionally it's on the same scale as Christmas.  It's easy to confuse the two in some ways, I've always translated Wesołych Świąt to mean Merry Christmas, but it's a little broader and Świąt refers to holy times rather than just Christmas.  I was on the train on Sunday and somebody asked me why I hadn't gone home for Christmas..  The supermarkets are as much a buzz too as they were around Christmas time, full of chocolate!  And of course eggs, painted eggs are a must.

Every Saturday before Easter families prepare a special basket full of the traditional Easter Sunday breakfast food of white sausage, eggs, chocolate, bread, salt and so on.  The basket is taken to church on Easter Sunday to be blessed by the priest and this marks the official end of lent.  The meal is a huge feast.

I was awoken on Sunday morning by a number of loud canon blasts at around 6am, at first I thought it was thunder.  I walked into town and there was literally not another person around, I've never seen Torun so quiet.  Of course everybody was in church, by midday there were people strolling around town in their absolute Sunday best, and everything was closed (except McDonalds).

Easter Monday is a bit of a strange one though, it's called Dyngus Day or Wet Monday and is a huge excuse for a water fight.  The boys walk around town with buckets of water and soak the girls, the idea is that the girls who are soaked will marry within a year.  Your guess is as good as mine...!