In The Czech Republic, Easter is a long holiday, much longer than most of us celebrate here in the United States. Besides celebrating Easter classically as we know it on Sunday, many Czech people celebrate the entire week leading up to this cheerful holiday.
Back when the communists first started their occupation of the Czech nation in the late 1940s, the originally religious holiday was banned. As a result, it became more of a welcome of spring and a hope for new beginnings. With the end of the Velvet Revolution and communism, some of Easter’s Christian roots were brought back. Many of the Czech customs however, originated in pre-Christian times. Christianity very skillfully used these pre-Christian customs; there are records showing that the Church tried to ban various customs from those times, calling them Pagan. But most of them survived despite these bans, and the Church was unable to uproot them, so in many cases, it just took them on. Easter is one of the times when pre-Christian customs and ideas blend with the Christian ones.
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