20 east

Easter is thought to be the origin of the phrase “moveable feast” because of the way the Easter holiday moves around according to the very simple rule of: [Easter Day is] the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon (which is the 14th day of an astronomical new moon) that occurs on or after the day of the Vernal Equinox (March 21st).

Once Easter Sunday is fixed a whole bunch of other stuff like Ash Wednesday (first day of Lent), Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day) as well as obviously the other Easter days, like Good Friday and Easter Monday all fall into place.

Since then, the phrase has been used, particularly in the US, as a metaphor for anything that moves around. This more modern use may have been helped along by Hemingway’s posthumously published memoirs of his life in 1920’s Paris, titled “A Moveable Feast”.

For anyone who might have just landed from Venus, or Mars, there are a few things associated with Easter and they vary slightly depending on where you are:

Easter Bunny (Rabbitkind generally) - this is very prevalent in the UK but not seen at all in Poland. The origins are Pagan but managed to “make the cut” and be incorporated into the new fangled Christian religion and then be sold back to the Pagans as the new improved religion as authorized by the powers that be. In second century Europe, the predominate spring festival was a wild Saxon fertility celebration in honor of the Saxon Goddess Eastre (Ostara), whose sacred animal was a hare. EDIT – Would you Adam & Eve it! As I exited the car park on the way home what was staring me in the face from Plac Defilad? A huge inflatable chocolate rabbit! Sponsored by a chocolate producer of course. Hopefully not signalling the invasion of Poland by chocolate rabbits from now on.
Eggs (painted, chocolate, etc) – this goes WAY back as far as you can imagine and then a bit further. My guess is that about a week after the first animal laid an egg, people started using eggs as a symbol of fertility and (in the case of Easter) of rebirth. The eggs are found everywhere at Easter but they tend to shift from painted eggs to chocolate ones as you move West. This Easter we have both.

Chicks (Chickens) – I suspect these are associated with the eggs but which came first? Must be a modern thing as there’s every chance the first animal to lay an egg was an alligator. Not sure the Easter basket would look the same with little fluffy alligators on it! Chicks, being cute, are equally popular here and in the UK.

Easter basket – I think the tradition of the Easter basket is associated with the end of the Lenten fast. The idea being to cram the basket with goodies that Satan has been tempting you with for the last 40 odd days, get them blessed and then stuff your face! Our local expert on Lenten fasting is Michael, you can find him in Jeziorki. There are, I’m sure some explanations given to the various items you might put into your basket – bread, butter, eggs, salt, meat, evergreen leaves/twigs, decorative cloth cover but I’m not going to get into that. The Easter basket is a much bigger deal in Poland than in the UK. The baskets are blessed by a priest who says a prayer and splashes them all with holy water. You can usually buy (take & contribute perhaps) small bottles of holy water at the church for home blessing. The basket blessing ceremony is called Święconka.

Easter lamb - the Baranek Wielkanocny is, as far as I can recall, not a big thing in the UK. I seem to remember something sheepy going on but not to the same extent as here. Here the lamb almost always comes with a ‘resurrection banner’ and is supposed to represent Christ Resurrected. The Lamb of God. Not sure about the bell?!*

Good Friday – this is the one thing I’m confused about but hopefully someone will help. Good Friday, i.e. today (this year), is a holiday in the UK and is treated as a serious part of the Easter festival. It is, so we are told, the day Jesus was crucified. I would have thought that such a day would also be important to Catholics and therefore be part of Easter here in Poland, but it is not. Today is a normal work day. There are, in Poland, some important church services this evening, of the long and tedious variety. I assumed therefore that it might be the case that Jesus was crucified late today and so the evening was the important moment. (They do have a tendency to get the timing better organised – take for example Christmas Eve versus Christmas Day) However, what little research I have done suggests that he was in fact crucified at around 09:00 this morning and by 14:00-15:00 this afternoon he was dead (so to speak). If this is the case, why is everyone going about their daily routine, sending emails and stuff at the very time such a special person is dying and going to join his father in heaven? It doesn’t make sense to me. On the one hand, I can understand how people might not consider his death to be something to get excited about. On the other, it is a momentous occasion in the life of Jesus and if it hadn’t been for his suffering & death then all that followed would be…. what?

Well, shouts of “Wesołych Świąt” abound so I guess it must be Easter! Well, in Poland you need to look at the calendar to work out what’s going on because the same “Wesołych Świąt” is used at Christmas. This bugs me because it’s the same as the American “Happy Holidays”, which always seem so….naff. Never mind, everyone is off now to perform the nationwide “holiday shuffle” that involves the following ingredients to one extent or another:

1. Hitting the food shops as if you are provisioning Noah’s Ark simply because the shops are closed for one day and there’s a 1/10,000 chance that a small tribe might descend upon your home in an uninvited sort of way.
2. Building up the entire families stress level to approximately four times the normal level through the need to clean the entire house twice and cook all of this food you bought – before the holiday even really starts.
3. Engaging in family arguments about who’s going to be where on what day, when and who’s bringing the salads. Engaging in major arguments if any members of the extended family decide not to participate in any part of the celebrations.
4. Making up a basket of goods to be blessed at the church tomorrow. Attend other church services.
5. Driving around Poland to be in the right place at the right time.
6. Sitting around with family members pretending to be having a good time when you would really rather be somewhere else having a better time.

In the heathen UK, this would be genuinely good news. Four days off work (Good Friday is not a holiday in Poland) and a chance to finish off those DIY jobs, take the family out to the countryside/seaside and enjoy some time together or just relax and enjoy some good TV. By family I mean your immediate family, not including the in-laws, out-laws, shake-it-all-about-laws! In Poland however, Easter (Pascha, Niedziela Wielkanocna, Wielkanoc) is not what I would call a ‘holiday’. It is altogether something more serious, more religious, more of a family duty, more stress than relaxation. That has some good points such as tradition & family but I’m beginning to think the list of bad points might be longer.

I suppose it’s different for people who’s family is a long way from Warsaw and these occasions are the only chance they get to spend time together, but that’s not the case with out family. We all live within easy drive of each other here in Warsaw, or close by and so we can and do see each other very often. There’s only so much you have to say and want to do and that’s all said and done a few times over. Now we can sit in the same room for three days and wonder what else there is to talk about? More often than not, the stress of preparing for the holiday means that all that is left to say is not terribly uplifting. Still, the arguments can at least help to pass the time.