Polish Easter “Palms”
Because palms do not grow naturally in Poland, Polish people are use pussywillow or tree branches and decorate them with ribbons. Sometimes they use dried flowers to create “ palms” These are later blessed, in place of palms, on Palm Sunday at church.
Easter
The Saturday before Easter, traditional foods are taken to church to be blessed.
On Saturday people take to churches decorated baskets (Swieconka) containing a sampling of food to be blessed: eggs, ham, sausage, salt, fruit, bread and sugar Easter lamb.
Poland has its own Easter tradition of decorated eggs called “pisanki”. These may be dyed, decorated using a wax removal method, painted or colored with paper or fabric.
On Easter Sunday morning, a special Resurrection Mass is celebrated in every church in Poland. At this Mass, a procession of priests, altar boys and the people circles the church three times while the church bells peal and the organ is played for the first time since they had been silenced on Good Friday.
On the Easter table you can see colored eggs, cold meats, coils of sausages, ham, fruit cakes, poppy-seed cakes. Polish Easter Soup called Żurek or White Barscz is often served at the Easter meal, with the hard-boiled eggs and sausage.
Monday (just after aster) is a holiday in Poland and is called in polish "Lany Poniedzialek" or "Smigus- Dyngus". This is a wonderful day of fun.
The ancient Polish tradition on Easter Monday, is celebrated by everyone with enthusiasm by sprinkling each other with water or perfume. Especially kids have fun this day.
