Quiet Easter Monday

Hello everyone visiting my blog.

I hope you enjoyed your long Easter weekend :-)

I enjoyed mine a lot. It was a very quiet and relaxing one, spent bathing in the sun, reading (a book on genetics - very interesting and entertaining) and studying toward my exams a bit.

I finally managed to see a movie I had intention to see a long time ago - namely The Story of Sin (Dzieje Grzechu). It was quite an interesting choice of movie to watch over Easter period... Just messing here... In fact, this is a drama about unrequited love ... and the title is very pertinent to the story. I enjoyed watching it though I thought at the beginning it would be just boring and not worth it. My praise here goes to the cameraman too - good job, great sensual images! Music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Johann Pachelbel is so well chosen too.
NB. The movie is based on a novel by Stefan Zeromski.

I am listening to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos now. A real treat to make my day as recently I had so had little time to do anything else but work, study and sleep. I hope to enjoy more things soon. Of course tomorrow I am horse riding again :)

Talking about horse riding...

In one of the Eastern European countries, on Easter Monday a special custom can be witnessed. C. 60 horse riders from the Upper Silesia proceed through their village of Ostropa and the nearby fields praying for good crops. This custom is thought to be pagan in origin and was later christianised. Here go some images (the source is GW):


More images here.

This custom has been preserved only in Ostropa and two other places in the country. Still, another Easter Monday custom is widely spread in several Eastern European countries and way too well preserved. This one is not nice - especially for the fairer sex. On Easter (Wet) Monday men pour buckets of water on women. Supposedly this has something to do with rebirth and fertility and has its roots in some pagan beliefs but who would think about it now? Youth takes it as an opportunity to have "fun" and catch as many (sometimes unsuspecting) victims as possible. For me there would be nothing nice in getting wet while on a walk or a way to the church (water is easy to get as in the town where my parents live there is a fountain in a park close by).

Good that I am in Ireland now. The weather here was better and no crazy youth with buckets in sight. I was in Grand Parade park and there were loads of teenagers - good they have no clue about this custom ;-) mind there is a fountain there as well!

Here go some images of "smingus dyngus":

Women are supposed to do the same to men on Tuesday following Easter Monday but then everyone goes to work and it never happens...

More images - here.
Source - GW