Czech Easter: the pomlázka, painted eggs and a Monday of willow switches

At Easter you may see a group of teenage boys on a village street carrying decorated sticks and pointing them at passing women. It looks stranger than it is. The sticks are braided willow whips, the boys are keeping a custom older than anyone can date, and the women are, in most cases, expecting them.

The pomlázka is the best-known Czech Easter custom, but only one of many. Easter here is a spring festival with deep folk roots, kept more in the countryside than in cities, mixing the Christian calendar with a secular delight at the end of winter.

The Easter calendar

Easter in Czechia follows the western date, which falls between late March and late April. The week has its own names and customs.

On the fifth Sunday of Lent, Smrtná neděle (Death Sunday), some villages carry a straw figure, Morana, representing winter and death, through the streets and burn it or throw it into a stream. It is a ritual of driving out winter, found in rural areas across Central Europe and kept alive by some villages and school groups.

On Květná neděle (Palm Sunday) branches of pussy willow (kočičky) are carried to church to be blessed, because palms do not grow here. People keep the twigs at home, and vases and doors are decorated with them alongside ribbons and painted eggs. Many homes also hang eggs on bare branches in a vase or on a tree in the garden.

Zelený čtvrtek (Green Thursday) falls on the Thursday before Easter. Tradition prescribes green food, such as spinach or nettle soup, for health through the year. The church bells fall silent after the Thursday Mass, and folk tradition says they have flown to Rome. On Good Friday and Holy Saturday children walk through villages with wooden rattles (řehtačky) to make the noise the bells would. Some places keep it up; elsewhere it has become a show for schools.

On Holy Saturday, families prepare food and decorate eggs. On Easter Sunday, the bells return, families gather for lunch, and the day is quiet.

The eggs

Eggs are the heart of Czech Easter. Kraslice are decorated eggs, blown out and painted, or scratched, wax-resist dyed, wrapped in straw or covered with wire. Styles vary by region, and Moravia in particular has distinctive patterns from Haná, Wallachia and Slovácko, often tied to local costume. Museums show collections, and craftspeople sell kraslice at Easter markets in Prague and other cities.

Eggs symbolise new life, and on Easter Monday women give them to the boys who visit. Chocolate eggs and small presents now sit beside the hand-painted kind. To buy a real kraslice, go to a craft stall or museum shop and ask about the technique; mass-produced imitations exist.

Easter Monday and the pomlázka

The pomlázka is a whip plaited from fresh willow twigs into a long braid and decorated with coloured ribbons. The name suggests "making young again", from the idea that the touch of fresh twigs passes health and youth to the woman. On Easter Monday boys and men go from house to house, wish the women of the family health and beauty, recite a short rhyme and tap them lightly on the legs or back with the whip. The women reward them with a painted egg, sweets, a small shot of plum brandy (slivovice) or a little money. By the afternoon the boys, often carrying a basket and hung with ribbons, are in good spirits.

In some regions, particularly in Moravia and Slovakia, women and girls are doused with water instead of, or as well as, being tapped. In parts of the country women take their revenge on Tuesday. Details vary from village to village, as does the rhyme the boys recite.

How people see it now

The custom has its critics. Some women find being tapped with a whip, however gently, intrusive, and the debate about consent is now part of the conversation. Most families treat it as a light-hearted game among relatives, neighbours and friends, with a tap that is symbolic, not painful. If you do not want to take part, say so politely; no sensible person will insist. If you are a man invited to visit, ask your host about the local custom. For the wider calendar of religious and national holidays, see Czech public holidays explained.

Town customs have changed. Many urban families buy chocolate, decorate the flat with willow twigs and painted eggs, and head for the countryside at the weekend. Some city residents have never been tapped with a pomlázka; for them it is a village custom. The cities hold Easter markets, the largest in Old Town Square and on Wenceslas Square in Prague, usually from a couple of weeks before Easter (check Prague City Tourism for dates).

Food

The Easter table includes mazanec, a sweet yeast bread with raisins and almonds, often marked with a cross, and beránek, a lamb-shaped cake. Jidáše are honey-sweetened yeast buns, shaped like a rope and eaten on Green Thursday. Eggs boiled and dyed with onion skin, boiled ham with horseradish and spring salads complete the table.

Religion and Easter

Czechia is one of the least religious countries in Europe (Czech religion and secularism), and for most families Easter is a folk and family festival rather than a religious one. Churches hold services on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, and attendance rises. The older spring rituals show how much of the festival comes from before Christianity.

If you are visiting

To see the customs, go to a village or a regional open-air museum. Many run Easter programmes with craft demonstrations, egg decorating and folk music, and sometimes a mock pomlázka for visitors. Many large shops close over the Easter holidays under the sales restrictions law, so check the list of closing days before you rely on a supermarket (as of 2026; check the official source).

Frequently asked questions

What is a pomlázka?

A braided whip made of fresh willow twigs, used on Easter Monday to tap women lightly for health and youth.

What do women give in return?

A painted egg, sweets, a small drink or a little money.

Is Good Friday a public holiday?

Yes, since 2016. Easter Monday is also a public holiday.

What are kraslice?

Decorated Easter eggs, made with regional techniques such as wax resist, scratching or straw.