A Slovak Wedding!

(Side note to readers:   If you'd like to enlarge the photos and fonts to see/read more easily, you can simply click on the text or a picture, then hold down the "Command" button and hit the "+" (plus sign), and everything will get bigger on your screen.  This works for a Mac anyway, and I suppose something similar would work on a PC too.)

We had another short week at school - we've had two 3-day weeks back to back because of our extended Easter holiday.  So this week our Wednesday was a "sweet lunch" day (which is normally every Monday.)  We always have some thick, hearty soup on sweet lunch day, and the entree is something more dessert-like.  

This sweet lunch day included a thick potato-pea-hot dog soup, and jam-filled pirohy drenched in butter and cinnamon-sugar.  We also had oranges, and some watered-down fruit tea.  It was all quite delicious!!  

On Wednesday, I was informed/asked to be a judge in a singing contest the next day.  So, I taught my normal 1st and 6th hour lessons, but in between, here were my singers!  

It was a Christian hymn-singing contest, but for students not attending Christian schools.  I'm not sure why, but whatever!  There were three age categories and about 20 singers.  It was tough to make choices, but the kids were all darling!! 

The Drama Club is getting closer to performing the play they've been preparing all year.  It's an original adaptation of "Snow White" - very fun.  I've helped with rehearsals when possible, and more often lately, including this week.  

As the title for this post indicates, we were privileged to attend our first Slovak wedding this weekend.  We weren't sure what to expect, and we certainly didn't want to commit any faux pas, so we asked a lot of questions and found some differences between Slovak and American weddings.  First of all, the invitations are fairly general (posted on the school bulletin boards and on Facebook), and anyone who wants to attend the church ceremony is welcome to attend.  The reception, however, is usually only for close friends and family, and it's generally a much smaller group.  Another difference is that all the guests bring a long-stemmed flower (or flowers) to present to the bride after the ceremony in the receiving line.  We don't know what they do with all those flowers, but perhaps they are used at the reception.  Also, when we were standing outside the church after greeting the bride and groom in the receiving line, everyone was served cakes - delicious and fancy - all cut to be 'finger-food' size.  

The wedding was at the St. Mikuláš church on the town square.  Here is my office partner, Peter, (the groom) arriving with the bride's younger sister, the maid of honor, who is also a student of mine.  

And next, Bet'ka, the beautiful bride, with the best man, Peter's brother.  

All of us standing around waiting outside finally went on inside the church to be seated before the wedding party entered.  

The priest actually went outside with the bridal party, and he welcomed everyone to the wedding on a wireless microphone from outside.  Then he processed in first, followed by the two couples.  

The groom read a scripture passage during the ceremony.

The four chairs for the bridal couple and their attendants were set up two and two, behind each other, so we didn't have much of a view for the vows.  

The priest accompanied the newly-prounounced husband and wife for the recessional.  

This is the front of the church, where the bridal party sat, and the altar behind.  

Bet'ka is Lutheran and Peter is Catholic, so the musicians were an ecumenical group too!  There was a violin, cello, keyboard, drums, two guitars, and the singers.  

Mr. and Mrs. Bernicky!!  :-)  

After the wedding, one of our colleagues invited us over to her flat for tea and dessert.  It was fun hanging out with some of our teaching friends for a while at Nad'a's place. 

Nad'a's daughter, Terezka, is also a student of mine, and she did a nice job entertaining us on the guitar!   

Zuzka, Terezka, Katarina, Nada, Katka, Tim, and Katka's mother at our post-wedding festivities in Nad'a's flat.  We talked, laughed, sang songs with Nad'a playing guitar, and enjoyed Nad'a's delicious dessert with tea.  

A Slovak Easter

Here we go ----  the rest of our Easter holiday/break  ---  starting with Easter morning!    

The view of our church early on Easter Sunday, on our way to rehearse with the choir.  We started our morning playing YouTube renditions of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" on our computer at home!!  :-)  

After our ham dinner, we took off on a walk following the Vah River until we reached Liptovská Mara.  We've tried biking there before, but never found the lake until now!  

Then, we followed the other walkers in the area back towards town, to discover the normal path to the Mara, since it wasn't an easy walk along the river bank!!  We had to go up and over the railroad bed, but oh, what a nice view from there!    :-)

And this is looking the other direction down the tracks.  Wow!

We even had a view of Kriváñ in the distance.  

We saw gardens and flowers in some previously unexplored neighborhoods in Paludzka on the way back.  

Luba (our wonderful landlady) and Lenka (her beautiful daughter) stopped up to our flat on Easter evening for tea.  We had such fun talking with them!!  :-)  

The gals couldn't decide which photo was better, so I used them both!!   

This brings us to Easter Monday, which is another national holiday, just like Good Friday was.  Well, Tim had been invited by Michal (from basketball) to come to their flat at 8:30 in the morning.  And Lenka asked him to come over to their flat around 9:30 a.m.  What for???  To participate in the Slovak custom of splashing the women/girls  with cold water, then whipping them (very gently) with willow branches, all to ensure that the females will be healthy and beautiful in the coming year.  And what do the women do in response to this treatment???  They give the men chocolates, shots of alcohol, snacks and hot tea, and the young boys are given chocolate eggs and money!!  

MIchal's wife and daughter, Biba and Kristina, waiting for the splashing and whipping!  

Those of you who know my husband are, no doubt, shocked at his behavior!!  But this Easter Monday tradition is just one of those cultural things that isn't at all what it seems.  

It's all in great fun, and there's obviously no harm at all for anyone.  Tim's students had  told him the phrase that must be spoken, so he had it written on a little piece of paper to recite during the action!  

Then Tim and Michal went next door to his parents' flat, so that his mom could get splashed too.  Other relatives were there too, including this little guy who had the whole 'splashing' poem memorized!  

Michal and Tim doing some splashing and whipping.  Tim said they really did throw a lot of water on all the gals - he was surprised how wet they got!  

The little guy doing his whipping.   :-)  

The sticks are willows that are often woven or braided, and the boys collect colorful ribbons from the ladies/girls they visit.  

Here's Tim again, whipping one of our church choir members (Michal's mom) - you can see that her shirt is all wet already.  And then to be 'nice', the guys sometimes also spray perfume on the gals afterwards, so they are sweet all year long.  Notice the perfume bottle in Tim's other hand!  

Here's Tim in action again, spraying the perfume and holding the "whip".  

We asked people and did some research online about the origins of this custom, and it has pagan roots - driving away evil spirits after the winter with the 'whipping' - ensuring health and beauty for the women with the 'splashing' - and of course the giving of chocolate eggs originally symbolized fertility.  Evidently in some smaller villages, things can get a lot crazier, with women being dragged out of their houses and drenched with buckets of water, by men all dressed up in traditional folk costumes.  But most places it's just kind of a sweet custom for the little boys as well as their elders to come and visit all their female relatives, who enjoy the fun and attention.  In each place Tim visited, the ladies were all ready with sandwiches, cakes, and beverages to serve the hoped-for visitors.  

Next Tim visited Lenka and Luba downstairs from us.  Lenka had asked Tim to come and surprise her Mom.  This little relative came with his 'super soaker' squirt gun, which really got the gals wet!!  

Lenka getting soaked (notice the puddle of water on the floor in the reflection at left!)

I missed all the craziness, since I didn't want to risk being out in public during the designated "open season" before noon on Easter Monday!!  So I stayed home!  (And dry!) 

More of the antics --- but you can see that it's a lot of fun, even for the gals getting soaked with water.  We can't help thinking this wouldn't fly in the U.S., but it was fun for Tim to get a first-hand glimpse of this unique Slovak tradition.  

Tim's students and friends all insisted that he MUST splash me and whip me so that I would be healthy in the coming year, so as a good American husband living in Slovakia, he did just that ---- while I was in the shower!!   :-)   We thought this was a great compromise!  And of course, as a good American wife living in Slovakia, and a believer in equal rights, I took the opportunity to ensure Tim's good health by splashing  him (in the shower) on Tuesday morning!!   :-)  

Some of the gifts Tim received from the women he splashed with water on Easter Monday --- chocolate eggs and a bunny, a ceramic lamb, two hand-decorated eggs, and some delicious decorated gingerbread cookies!  

All morning while Tim was gone 'splashing', I saw boys down on the street, walking into other blocks of flats, and enjoying their Easter Monday visiting the special females in their lives!  

We decided to ride our bikes to the Mara on Monday afternoon to get some exercise and fresh air.  This little guy was walking down the street in Paludzka, almost looking like a trick-or-treater with his bag of goodies after his morning of splashing!  It's also a good view of the woven whip he was using.  

(At school later in the week, when I had my after-school English class at the basic school, I asked the boys how much money the had gotten for the splashing, and many had gotten between 25 and 50 Euros!!  Not to mention lots of chocolate eggs.  Their Grandmas and aunts were quite generous!!)

Our bike ride took us across this scenic stream with blossoming trees all along the left bank, and mountains in the distance.  

Selfie at Liptovská Mara.  My arms aren't long enough.  'Nuf said!!   LOL!!  

I had packed a picnic lunch, and we ate ham sandwiches in lovely kaiser rolls from our Easter dinner leftovers, on the banks of the Vah River.  I couldn't get a good picture of the terns that were swooping and diving over the surface of the water - they were much too quick.  But we were entertained by their acrobatic flight as we enjoyed our lunch.  

What a beautiful spot for a picnic lunch!!  We headed home and got back to our flat just before an afternoon rain shower.  Some Yahtzee and Greed games were played in between Skype calls with family later in the day.  Our six-day Easter break was relaxing, restful, and quiet, other than all of Tim's escapades with dousing women with water!!  LOL!!  

He is Risen!!

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, though there were no palms distributed or waved at our service.  That's not a tradition here, because the focus is instead on Jesus' upcoming week of suffering.  There's a separate special little worship book that is used just for the Passion worship services.  Our pastor loaned us one, so we were able to look up all the verses in our English Bible and follow along.  The hymns and responses are all in the book too.  

This was a short week at school, with Thursday and Friday off for our Easter holiday.  Wednesday we only had the first three classes, and then everyone from both the primary and secondary schools walked to the church for our monthly worship service.  Tim and I had been rehearsing with the young people leading the contemporary style music, some in Slovak, some in English.  I was asked to read scripture, and Tim said a prayer during the service.  It's neat that they are beginning to incorporate a little English into our services now, but we always have translation - this time it was my office-mate, Ad'ka.  Zuzana, her son Timko, and Katarina went with us to eat lunch out after church - it was so nice not to have to rush back to school, since there were no more classes the rest of the day.  

Late Wednesday afternoon, we met Erik at the train station for a short ride to Ružomberok to watch game #2 in the Slovak national championships for women's semi-professional basketball.  

Ružomberok was the home team, and they were the underdogs.  Two of their better players were Americans.  We googled them later, and they were both star players, one at Boston College and the other at Virginia Tech.  

This is the team from Košice, who has won the championship for the past 10 years.  They also had a couple of Americans playing for them.  

When the Košice fans arrived, they were very enthusiastic supporters!!  

We were cheering for the Ružomberok team, because the three girls who played with Tim and Erik at the coed teacher tournament had all played basketball in the program here, though not at this level.  Our cheering section was pretty rowdy too!!  There were drums, noisemakers, huge flags, etc. just below us.  

The game was intense, and much more physical than we expected.  International rules allow a lot more contact, evidently!  The level of play was really excellent - somewhere between good college ball in the U.S.A. and the WNBA.  We were impressed, and we really enjoyed the game.  It's a best 3 of 5 games, so the next one will be in Košice, but we may go to watch game #4 back in Ružomberok!!  (We won this one, so the series is tied at 1 each now.)  These gals can really play defense, and they are great shooters.  

Thursday we slept in a little, which was really nice for a change.  Then we did some shopping in the late morning, and our trip to the grocery store really reminded us of being at the Ankeny Hy-Vee right before a big holiday weekend.  The parking lot and all the aisles were packed!!  It was crazy, and fun too, feeling all the excitement in Easter preparations!  

i took the camera along on our bike ride to the store, and I stopped for some spring flower pictures along the way.  The grape hyacinth of course remind me of our yard in Ankeny!  These are right outside the front door to our block of flats.

Daffodils and narcisse just outside our place too!!  

Our friend Janka has a beautiful yard and garden, and we loved her Cyclone-themed tulips! 

There are flowering trees absolutely everywhere now!  There are so many apple, plum, and cherry trees in this area, so they all bloom in the springtime.   

The gardens on the main square are starting to bloom too.  

Forsythia can be spotted everywhere, and here they call it "Golden Rain" --- nice!!   :-)

Here's the view from my bike - Tim ahead and the mountains in the distance.

Close-up of the mountains, since they didn't show up so well on the previous picture.   Sorry it's crooked --- I was still pedaling!!  

More flowering trees, and a colorful flowerbed just beyond.  

We love to take time to 'stop and smell the flowers' on our bike rides in the Slovak springtime!   

Another garden view.  All the houses have fences around them, but most every garden has a lot of flowers just inside the fence.  

An older block of flats, with a bush in full bloom.  

Our Maundy Thursday service was at 5:00, but here it is called "Green Thursday" because of Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane.  After church that evening we met Marian and Susan for pizza and conversation.  

On Good Friday, church was at 9:00 a.m., so we met a half hour ahead of time to rehearse with the choir.  Since it's a national holiday, this morning time works fine for people, and the service was packed.  Zuzana came to translate for us, and the choir did a nice job!  

Thanks Zuzka, for taking this picture of me directing our choir.  Tim is on the far right in the back row of the choir, holding down the bass section.    :-)  

We went on another bike ride Friday afternoon, and as we went past the huge Catholic church in Okolične, we noticed they were having Mass.  We had never seen the inside of that gothic structure, so we stepped into the back entryway and listened to the music for a while.  It was beautiful!!  It started to rain, so we pedaled quickly to our flat for the rest of the afternoon, and later, Tim went to play basketball with the guys.  

Saturday we got to sleep in yet again, then we went to church for a couple of hours.  There was a 12-hour prayer vigil all day Saturday (come-and-go style), so we joined in during the segment designated for families and relationships.  It was such a blessing to be there, praying with our brothers and sisters in Christ, singing praise songs, and taking time to reflect on the magnitude of God's love for us.  

This Christmas cactus was in our flat when we arrived, and it has never bloomed yet.  So I decided to decorate it with these small Easter eggs which were tucked away in a box in a closet!   The Easter card is from Tim's mom, and our good-looking kids are center front!   :-)  

The weather has been kind of crazy the last couple of days - even during one single day the temperatures have fluctuated - warm and sunny, cold and windy, and rain comes and goes quickly.  So Saturday afternoon we decided to not venture too far away and risk getting caught in the rain again, but we really wanted to get out and enjoy the day when the sun finally came out.  So, we went into the grassy area just outside our flat and threw a frisbee around for a while!  It was one we had picked up for free at the Iowa State Fair last summer that says:  "I met a farmer today!"  Fun times!!  

Before we close, we want to reflect on our Easter journey here in Slovakia.  We have observed that the biggest focus of Easter week here seems to be Good/Big Friday, rather than Easter morning, which is the biggest focus in the U.S.   Jesus' suffering, death, and sacrifice on our behalf is indeed the greatest gift ever given.  We have also noticed that most all crosses in Slovak churches include the crucified Jesus.  But Christ's victory over death and sin was first known at the empty tomb on Easter morning.  Those empty crosses that we are so accustomed to seeing in Protestant American churches symbolize the risen Jesus!  We have been blessed this Easter season to consider both types of crosses in all their intertwined significance.  Jesus gave his life for our salvation, and He is Risen!!  Hallelujah!!

Our Slovak daughter, Katarina, gave us this cross as a gift, and it is such a perfect symbol of Easter.  Yes, it shows Jesus on the cross, and yet, Jesus did not stay on that cross.  The tomb is empty, and He is Risen!!
He is Risen Indeed!! 

John 3:16  (NIV)  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.