Krys Bremner, a Catholic woman aged 73, shares childhood Easter customs from her Polish background: an insight to the traditions of a less well-recognised culture during this religiously momentous time of year.
Krystyna Bremner has Polish parentage, but she has lived in northern England for her entire life after her parents became refugees when Germany invaded Poland on the 1st of September 1939. Like her parents, Krys has “believed in God all my life” but she does not consider herself to be a devout Christian who, in her personal opinion, would go to church almost every day – prior to the pandemic, Krys would go to church at least once a week, where she attended church meetings. She describes her previous church role as a “meet and greeter”: she would give out prayer and hymn books to churchgoers however unfortunately, she explains that it is no longer safe for her to go to church anymore due to the dangers caused by the current and ongoing spread of coronavirus.
A common Polish tradition on Easter Saturday is to compile a decorative basket with contents of bread slices, butter, ham (which Krys did not add to her basket because she is pescetarian), eggs and salt which symbolise life, and some chocolate or cake in the shape of a lamb. This symbolises Jesus Christ because in the Bible, it states that He is the ‘Lamb of God’ and the festival of Easter is centred around how Jesus was sacrificed for the benefit of the world before being resurrected. Next, the basket would be brought to church and at around 3:00pm, the priest would sprinkle holy water over the basket to bless the food. Afterwards, the basket would be brought home and the family would wait until Easter Sunday morning when they are then allowed to eat samples of the food which would suffice for a blessed holy meal. Krys Bremner participated in this Polish festivity around twenty years ago; she says that “a lot of it was symbolic”.
Another Polish custom, especially one for children, is to throw a small amount of water at each other on the morning of Easter Monday, earning the title of ‘Wet Monday’, also known as ‘Dyngus Day’ particularly among Polish Americans. Krys did not remember where the roots of this unusual practice originated from because it “goes back some years”. Apparently, this tradition is connected to the sacred baptism of a Polish prince that occurred many hundreds of years ago.
In the Church Calendar, Easter is commonly agreed to be the most important celebration of all (even more so than Christmas) because Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross and He proceeded to rise from the dead, proving that He is divine; this event holds immense significance to Christians worldwide. Krys Bremner says that ultimately, in addition to the religious context, Easter is “a time for the family to come together”.
