Easter Weekend!

Good Friday is called "Big Friday" here in Slovakia.  We met at church at 8:30 a.m. for choir rehearsal and the 9:00 a.m. Good Friday service, which was absolutely packed!  Huge crowd!!  We sense that in the Slovak church there is much importance placed on Jesus' sacrifice, suffering and death, so Good Friday is a big deal.  (It is a national holiday as well, so people had the day off and could attend services.)  

Our choir sang the two Taizé songs we had prepared, with violin and guitar accompaniment.  I directed the group, which they appreciated.  It sounded really nice!  After the service, most people stayed for the communion service to follow.  Usually, it's only 30-40 people who stay when the extra communion service is offered, but for Good Friday, there must have been a couple hundred.  We were really cold by the end of the second service, so stopped by the grocery store on the way home, both to warm up and to stock up, since stores would be closed for the holiday weekend.  It was almost noon by the time we got home.

This doesn't really fit in with today's post, but Saška, the elementary principal emailed me this picture of one of the basic school classes I teach.  I don't know why Slovaks tend to NOT smile in pictures!!  These kids are so adorable and are usually VERY smiley!!  :-)  

Friday at 5:00 we walked to volleyball, but I suppose due to the holiday weekend and the cold windy weather, there were only five of us there.  It was actually a lot of fun playing just 3-on-2 with a short court.  Thankfully the guy who was on our team was really athletic, because he covered for us a lot!  LOL!!  I stayed afterwards for a little while to watch the basketball action, and I was impressed with the play.  Everyone was really unselfish, played 'team' ball, looked to pass first, and just played well!!  It was fun to watch!  

This pic was sent to us by one of Tim's B-ball buddies.  The group was started in the 60's, and they have a web page with photos and their history!  

Saturday morning we didn't have to set an alarm clock - YAY!!  It was a relaxing morning.  We took a bus to Liptovsky Trnovec shortly after noon, for lunch with Pat'ka and Rivi in their village.  She served delicious chicken and vegetable soup, broasted potato wedges, and yummy chicken breasts baked in foil with leeks, apples, and cheese.  Patk'ka's dear grandmother had made cake for dessert.  

There are many beautifully reconstructed houses in Liptovsky Trnovec.  This one was darling, and I took the picture for Lisa Evans!!  If you ever move to Slovakia, Lisa, this cute little ORANGE house would be perfect for you!!  :-) 

The garden behind the orange house went way back and up the hill - note the old 'fruit cellar' built into the hillside just above the fence!  

From the hillside above the village, looking back across some gardens and orchards on the hillside behind the houses.  

This is the Lutheran church, where Pat'ka is the church organist.

In medieval times, Liptovsky Trnovec was declared a 'King's Village', and as such was granted privileges such as punishments in the public stocks seen here outside the city hall.  The village was also granted the rights to collect taxes and to operate a market.  

We had an Easter egg decorating party after our walk!  The empty, blown-out eggs had already been dyed, and we used colored wax from crayons melted on the hot-plate to decorate them.

We really had fun getting our creative juices flowing, and it was interesting that much of the time decorating was spent in intense and silent concentration!  

We used straight-pins stuck into pencil erasers as our decorating tools.  Then we could either 'dot' or 'dot with a tail' as techniques to draw with the melted colored wax!  Thank goodness Rivi had some sample eggs already decorated in some traditional patterns, so I tried to copy the patterns!  It was really fun for all of us!!  

The four of us played a word game kind of like 'Scattergories', which was doubly fun because words in Slovak or English were allowed!!  :-)  Pat'ka drove us home in the evening, so we could get to bed early because of the 'spring ahead' time change here overnight.  It's a few weeks later here for us to lose an hour's sleep.

This morning we went to the regular Easter service at church, and Jan translated for us.  The 'regular' choir (not our Taizé group) sang a couple of anthems.  It was raining pretty hard afterwards, so Jan gave us a ride to the church in Vrbica (which is near where we play volleyball on Fridays), since he was going there too.  There was a youth-oriented Easter service with contemporary music, and many younger people and kids from our church were there.  We really enjoyed it, and of course Jan translated yet another sermon for us!  :-)  It was raining even harder afterwards, so Jan gave us another ride all the way home.  Normally we don't mind walking everywhere, but in such heavy rain and wearing our good clothes, it was really nice to have a ride!  

We sat way in the back of the balcony so Jan's translation wouldn't disturb others, and this was our view behind the organ.  These cushions are on all the pews, so this must be where they store the spares.  I thought the rainbow colors were pretty, and I am imagining church circle ladies sewing all those cushion covers many years ago!  

For Easter dinner, I didn't even have to cook, since Pat'ka sent leftovers from yesterday's meal home with us.  :-)  I just added some sautéed zucchini/peppers and a fruit salad.  I've also gotten caught up with laundry today, and Tim walked to the ATM in preparation for our next journey tomorrow.  (More on that later in the week!)

The Easter Bunny came, bringing a chocolate bunny and some not-quite-malted-milk eggs for Tim!!  :-)   This is our table centerpiece with our Slovak-style decorated eggs! 

Close-up of a couple of the eggs!   :-)   

Happy Easter to everyone!!  

He is Risen!!  He is Risen indeed!!