I have so many memories of celebrating different holidays I spent in Poland.  As you know, Poland is a country with rich traditions. Despite being at the heart of much destruction during World War II, it has kept much of its cultural heritage remarkably intact. Easter in Poland is filled with amazing customs!

Easter. Image by tomekszeremeta1 from Pixabay

There are couple things that I remember particularly and they bring smile to my face anytime I think of growing up in Poland and spending Easter with my family.

One of them is eggs and horseradish root! Yes, you heard it right!

Horseradish. Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

I grew up on a big farm, surrounded by…fields, not many neighbors. Although two of my uncles lived close by. Because of us living quite a way from the church, we didn’t bring our Easter baskets to be blessed at the church. Instead, the priest (ksiądz) would stop by my grandparents house to bless everything. Each household (us, my grandparents and my uncles and their families) would prepare their Easter baskets (święconki). We would bring it all to my grandparents house and set it on their table (which was always beautifully decorated). On Holy Saturday’s morning, we all gathered together and waited for the priest to arrive! The baskets were there, the holy water (woda święcona) was there…and then, there was a plate with hard boiled eggs, cut in wedges, and small slices of horseradish root (korzeń chrzanu)!!!

After the food was blessed, everyone in the room (including priest), had to eat a piece of egg and the horseradish with it! Of course all of us kids were just waiting to see the priest eating that horseradish! You know it’s spicy…it was a fun part of the day for us! We couldn’t wait to watch everyone’s faces after tasting this root vegetable!

Easter eggs made with onion skins dye. Image by Bairyna from Pixabay

The second memory that makes me smile is decorating eggs! We never really painted them, but we dyed them using vegetables and their skins, and then it was my favorite part: scraping designs!

My mother used onion skins to boil the eggs in and color them! They would come up reddish/brownish, with some colors looking more like tie-dye style. After they cooled off, we used different sharp objects to “scrape” a design on the egg! It was very creative and a lot of fun! You had to be really careful though and try not to crack the egg shell!

“Skrobanki” – the finished product of “scraping” design on the colored egg. Image by Zauberei from Pixabay

What is your favorite part of Polish Easter traditions? Please share them with us! I can’t wait to read your comments:)

Happy Easter! Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych!