How I Made My First Easter Whip ****************************************************************************************** * How I Made My First Easter Whip ****************************************************************************************** Easter Monday is the core of the non-religious Czech Easter celebrations - a popular festi Czechs which is sometimes frowned upon by people from abroad because the traditional ‘beat misunderstood.  Here, this ritual ‘beating’ is practised as it is believed to bring youth to the girls or young women involved. Usually, the woman is only touched by the Easter whi to symbolise this Easter tradition, hence it is not an actual beating. This ritual is carr men who have the Easter whips when they visit households for the Easter Monday carolling. is called a ‘pomlázka’ in Czech, and it is usually made out of eight young willow branches Funnily enough, in my family, my mother was the one to braid it for my father. Now, thanks society PAKET - which hosts events and activities such as the traditional painting of East the second woman in my family that knows how to make the whip. In case you are not aware, PAKET is an association of Ethnology students at Charles Univer Arts, which aims to revive some of the half-forgotten Czech traditions, such as St. Lucy’s in December. It also aims to increase the popularity of others, such as Easter, whilst inv study peers from both the Institute of Ethnology and the rest of the university to share t with them. Their abbreviated name, PAKET, actually stands for: ‘Pro aktivní etnologii’, or Ethnology’, which coincidentally, is their ultimate goal. This Easter, PAKET held an Easter Afternoon Workshop at the Faculty of Arts, which offered to paint Easter eggs alongside special guest, Mrs. Jiřina Ceehová. Jiřina Ceehová is an ex knowledgeable painter of Easter eggs, which is otherwise known as being a ‘malérečka’. Mrs been an active painter of Easter eggs for over 30 years and she regularly shares her art w - not only at Charles University - but also in other well-known Czech institutions, such a Museum.    During the Easter afternoon, two traditional egg painting techniques were introduced – wax batik. The first, a more modern technique, requires a pre-coloured egg or blown-out egg sh painted in a darker or bolder colour such as dark blue or red – which is then decorated by mixture. To create the mixture, you need a white wax crayon and either bee wax or white pa together with. The more traditional wax batik method is in fact centuries old. To do this, you need a whi egg shell, plain bee wax and several colours for the egg decoration. First of all, you dis over a candle flame - or another heat source - and then paint the areas of the egg that yo white. Next, the egg is dipped into yellow, which covers the rest of the egg. After the eg the next layer of wax decoration is applied, and this is used to preserve the yellow colou Once this stage is complete the process is simply repeated. The egg is dipped into another traditionally would be red. Hot wax is then used to cover the egg and preserve the red par the egg is coloured again, this time in a darker colour. Traditionally this would be black countryside, but dark blue also works well. Once the last layer of colour has dried, you can start removing the wax protection layers This is easily done, for example, over a gas flame - or even in a pre-heated oven. Take ca candle flame, however, as the smoke can damage the decoration. Once this stage has been co then remove the melted wax from the egg with a soft fabric cloth - preferably one made of portion of the wax will remain on the egg shell during this process, making it shiny. Afte wax is completely removed by the cloth, the full beauty of the finished egg will be reveal At Easter, I enjoy painting eggs - I do it every year. For many years now, I have taught t technique to Erasmus students during the Czech Easter Afternoon, held by the Erasmus Club Arts. Believe it or not, however, the wax batik technique always seemed so difficult to me even attempted to try it. Therefore, I really appreciate the opportunity PAKET have given this new technique. Admittedly, I am still far from perfect, but now I know how this decor is done, I will certainly try to improve through practice in the years to come. Additionally, another skill I learned during the PAKET Easter event was, as previously men the Czech Easter whip called a ‘pomlázka’. Again, this was something else I had previously very difficult to make. I have to admit, I did have some trouble keeping count of the youn used for braiding the whip. Eight of them in total are laid over each other again and agai one branch from the left side and another from the right. However, with the help of the yo I eventually succeeded with it – and made myself very proud in the process! For those of you who have not heard of the PAKET student society, I recommend that you loo prepared by them. They definitely offer opportunities for you to enrich your life whilst s Charles University, as well as allowing you to expand your knowledge of Czech culture and very entertaining way. Anna Kindness is a 3rd year English and Film student from Edinburgh, Scotland, who is stud culture, adventure, travel, the great outdoors and writing. The decision to write for iFor work environment, whilst simultaneously getting to meet like-minded people.