After being in Manchester, and then London a year later, we fell in love with Christmas Markets, so we were excited to see that Prague has markets for Easter all throughout the city. The Easter markets in the Czech Republic celebrate Christian traditions and/or the arrival of Spring. Although the markets can be found spread throughout the city the two main ones you wouldn’t want to miss are in the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square, but the Old Town markets are bigger and more impressive. We also came across some while walking randomly at Republic Square, Havel’s Market, Prague Castle, and on Kampa Island.
Entering the Old Town Square market. Unfortunately the clock tower in the back has been under construction so we haven’t seen it yet.
Rows of festive wooden huts are decorated with the colors of spring, stocked with food, and locally made handcrafts consisting of hand painted eggs, puppets dressed in traditional costume, glassware, jewelry, candles, and lace… just to name a few.
With so many food stalls we never left hungry.
Sausages are eaten a lot in the Czech Republic and were found all throughout the markets. A plate full of sausages is usually served at the traditional Czech restaurants. We saw may people order a bunch of sausages and eat them for lunch or dinner with nothing else besides a horseradish sauce to dip them in. They don’t eat hot dogs or sausages with buns like us Americans do. We couldn’t even find hot dog buns in the grocery store and replaced them with bread rolls (rohliky).
I don’t recommend getting this dessert (trdelnik). It’s not traditional to the Czech Republic (the locals don’t eat it) and it’s not very good. Even so, it’s found all throughout the tourist areas and the tourists buy into it only finding it to be “blah”. It’s a tourist trap.
Czech girls decorate Easter eggs to give to the boys on Easter Monday. The painting of the eggs (called Kraslice) is a family tradition that passes down the skill of their crafting technique. This tradition is one of the few surviving ancient arts still being passed down from generation to generation.
The Easter eggs in Prague exhibit the use of special techniques and designs that are found particular to the region in the Czech republic.
I approached this hut petting Coco so this funny man grabbed a wooden pig and started petting him like nothing was unusual, while cracking a smile. It was one of those “had to be there to be funny” moments.
Fun, but kinda creepy, wooden puppets and dolls dressed in traditional costume.
Love these beautiful Easter wreaths.
I’m sure these were probably massed produced but we saw many talented artists painting in the city.
Cute little bunnies.
And now lets talk “Easter whips.” We were very confused when we came across these decorated sticks. A man was holding the stick and testing out the durability as he bent it with his thumbs and whipped it in the air. A woman, I’m assuming his wife, then rolled her eyes and sighed as he tested out different sticks.
On Easter Monday morning, we woke to many doors being knocked on and people laughing, confused on what was going on we took a peek outside. We saw many men running around with these sticks, and knocking on the doors of women, whipping them once they answered. The women then handed them either decorated eggs, chocolate, or a shot of liquor from what we saw. I now see why the woman of the man testing the “whips” was rolling her eyes and signing. We did some research and found out according to the folk tradition, if a woman is whipped on Easter Monday she will remain healthy, beautiful, and fertile the coming year. At the end of the day woman are left with sore bottoms and men a little drunk. If you feel sorry for the women, you will be happy to know that on Tuesday, many get their revenge by splashing men with buckets of water.
