EASTER CELEBRATION IN SLOVENIA

Easter is one of the most important and popular Christian holiday in our country. It fell early this year, on the 27th of March.

Celebration starts with Palm Sunday. This is the last Sunday before Easter. On Palm Sunday people bring olive branches to church to be blessed. Children instead of olive branches bring Palm Sunday bundles. They are various in different parts of Slovenia.

Easter celebration continues with the Holy week. On Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday there are special rituals at the church.On Holy Saturday early in the morning priest blesses fire. People come with wood mushrooms and take fire home in their furnace. There they cook Easter dishes.

There they cook Easter dishes. Than they put them into the Easter basket and carry to church to be blessed.

Our traditional Easter dishes are 'prata', 'potica' (nut roll with walnut filling), Easter eggs, a cooked ham and horseradish.'Prata' is made of bread, ham, eggs, garlic, roasted onion, sour cream and spice. We mix these ingredients and bake this mixture in the oven.

On Holy Saturday the most interesting think for children is dyeing Easter eggs. They need to be red – they present Christ's blood. When you have some red eggs then you can dye others with different colours. Traditional way of decorating the eggs is by boiling them with onion skins.

In the evening on Holy Saturday people go to the church to Easter Vigil. They pray there and listen the Easter's Gospel.

In the Easter morning most people attend the Easter Outdoor Procession. After Liturgy they eat blessed Easter dishes.

On Easter Monday relatives visit each other. Children exchange the Easter eggs and play special games with them.

Even though Easter is a very important holiday, only the Easter Monday is a work-free and a school-free day in Slovenia.

Prepared by students from Matija Valjavec Primary School in Preddvor, Slovenia

April, 2016