Easter in the Slepo / Schleife Parish

Lenka Nowak from Rohne near Schleife tells us: "I have seven grandchildren, but when I compare Lent today with the Lent of my childhood, I see very little difference in the way the traditions are kept.

Sundays in Lent. We are thinking of Easter in the preceding four weeks. The Sundays in Lent, known to us Lutherans as Oculi, Laetare (Mothering Sunday), Judica, and Palm Sunday, point the way. The house is turned upside down with spring-cleaning until it shines. When we go shopping, we take care to put every new 10 or 20-mark note on one side, as we shall need them to include with the presents for our god-children.

Good Friday. Good Friday for us Lutheran Sorbs in the Parish of Schleife is a solemn Christian day of rest. No work may be done outside the house and garden, and we are most careful that there should be no banging, sawing, or shouting.There is an unwritten law that at least one member of the family must go the Good Friday church service. After breakfast we begin decorating Easter Eggs.by means of a technique using wax. Often there are five or six people sitting round the table in our kitchen until midday, decorating Easter Eggs to the best of their ability until each has in his hands a true work of art. We know who they are for - our god-children. Our feelings for them are expressed in the beauty of the eggs.

Easter Saturday. On Easter Saturday I bake the Easter cake and collect the Easter rolls and gingerbread cakes from the baker. Then I assemble an Easter present for each godchild. It consists of an interwoven Easter roll, a large gingerbread cake, and a small sum of money for the child's savings book. Then I lay out my national costume, ready for going to church, and we each take a bath, for everyone should be nice and clean to celebrate Easter.

In the evening we must bolt the doors of the stables, barns, outhouses, and garages, as well as the gates to the yard and garden. For in the night before Easter the local lads play tricks. They take gates off their hinges and remove fences, block up chimneys and drains, and hide car wheels and other vehicle parts. The ones who suffer most are those who are thought to have been mean during the recent collections for local activities.

Apart from the lads, the women and girls in choirs are active in the night before Easter. Dressed as in semi-mourning, we meet at the choir leader's house (she is known as the kantorka). We go singing from house to house and finish at sunrise, sitting on the special singers' benches, with a hymn of praise to God. We occasionally meet old Sorbian women who, believing in the healing powers of Easter water, are on their way to the spring.

Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday I go to church with my family. Then at last the children receive their gifts. Dressed in their best Easter clothes, my godchildren come to visit me, and they are then given their presents. With modest decorum they thank me and wish me, on entry and on leaving, a happy Easter. They have a busy day, visiting their god-parents in the villages and in Weisswasser.

Easter Monday. Easter Monday too is a special day. It is the day for egg-rolling. In our village directly behind the Easter Singers' special benches a shallow trench has been dug with a sloping surface. That is where the children will be today. At the lowest point they lay a brightly coloured egg and each child attempts to roll his or her egg down the slope so that it hits the other one. Whoever is successful is allowed to take out two eggs, but the eggs nearly always roll in the wrong direction. Only experts leave the game with more eggs than they brought with them.

Obviously this is a day for receiving guests from far and near. Following tradition we offer them hospitality in the form of cake or delicacies made with eggs, and we pass happy hours with many rounds of drinks. Among the Schleife Sorbs there is no other festival whose rituals and traditions are so faithfully kept as Easter.