Dear Family,
How is everyone doing this week? I'm doing great and I'm way happy right now. :D
Anyway, yesterday was a little bit depressing. It was all rainy and that kind of killed the whole pagan side of the Velikonoce holiday. Let me tell you about this pagan holiday. So, on Velikonoce (Easter - called Velikonoce because it's a smashed form of Velké Noc which means "long night" - the three days of darkness after the death of Christ) the guys have these little whip things which are made from braided willow branches. The willows are budding and blooming about this time and so they're very supple and easy to braid. Anyway, the guys take these little whip things and then they go around whipping the girls while saying this little song which basically says, "give me painted eggs, if not painted eggs, then white ones, and if not that then give me something sweet." Sometimes girls will give guys money so that they can go out and buy themselves some beer. (Speaking of beer, we went to eat lunch today with the sisters from Uherské Hradiště and saw that beer was actually cheaper than a soft drink by 33%. Isn't that rediculous?) The reason that the guys whip the girls is because the vitality from the branches is supposed to be given to the women by whipping them. I guess they want their girls to be more vital and fertile.
Our Velikonoce wasn't as fun because it rained all day and everything was closed. Something strange that I've noticed about the Czech Republic is that they used to be a very religious country until communism came in and destroyed all their hope of there being a God and religion being needful. Communism really ruined this country. Like, everywhere you'll find remnants of Christianity in their traditions or what they do for holidays, but they will not believe in the religious side of the things. Easter for instance: everyone closes their shops on Easter so that they can be with their families. They have lots and lots of Kostels (Cathedrals). They have random statues of Pani Maria (the Virgin Mary) everywhere. Just many, many little things. I don't get it. Actually I do, and I think it's terrible what has happened to these people.
Anyway, back to yesterday. The sisters from Uherské Hradiště came down to Zlín and we spent the day together. It's also Starší Mill's birthday today, and Denisa's on the 13th, so we had a joint birthday party yesterday where we were going to go to the zoo and then go to Denisa's house for lunch, but the busses weren't going to the zoo often enough, because it was Easter, and it was also raining. So we ended up going bowling. Bowling was open. One of the four things I'm sure that were open. Anyway, after bowling we went to Denisa's house and she fed us all Svičkova which was delicious. I didn't really like it my first couple times in the country, because it has this weird vegetable sauce that tastes kind of funky, but I'm liking it more and more.
We whipped Denisa yesterday and then the sisters today. We were supposed to whip the sisters yesterday, but we were all feeling kind of awkward about it. The rule is that if someone whips a girl after noon, she can poor water on him. So, we should have been soaked by the sisters, but they love us and didn't. Instead they gave us chocolate! Yipee!
So, that was our Velikonoce extravaganza (I'm sure that's spelled wrong. I can't spell anymore - everything gets spelled "Czechly" every now and then). We had a really good time and I hope that you're all doing well.
I love you all and know that our Savior Jesus Christ also loves us very much. I've grown so much closer to him these past few days, and have been realizing how much improvement and help I need from Him. Don't stop learning about yourselves because the more that you do, the more you realize that we need the Lord. That's something that I've learned this past transfer.
Love you muches, have youreslves well (Mějte se),
Starší Monk
PS - I have not seen conference yet. I'm going to watch it this weekend.
PPS - For Suzie, I'm sure you kind of recognize this Easter tradition is very much like the Roman one where the men go around whipping the women while they're naked the day after they've prayed to Venus so that they get the man that they want. Yes, I realized this a little after I thought about why it sounded familiar.