Nigel

I'll be leaving for a holiday in the Czech Republic. As I'll be there for Easter, I want to participate in the local customs.

If I "whip" a woman that I'm not familiar with, is this considered an insult? Am I to understand that it is customary to use willow branches to make a switch.

Jason

On this link http://www.radio.cz/en/html/easter.html you will find the history behind the custom. It's not just a case of waiving the stick, you have to recite a rhyme at the same time. Generally a lot of beer is drunk on Easter Monday so, many women will make a point of staying off the streets as much as possible. Your welcome to take a look at this link http://www.jasoncholt.com/prague for practical info about the city.

Jason

MaryC

Puts one in mind of those whole groups of flagellants (who would move about the town flogging one another to expiate sins) from the European middle ages, doesn't it?

Sue

Why does this thread make me think of the 'flagellants' in Life of Brian who smacked their foreheads with two by fours? : - )

Wayne

The talk about flagellants reminds me of this experience while I was living in Teheran, Iran. (this is not a joke; it's true) Since there is no celebration of Easter in Islam, I have to assume the Islamic celebration that has the equivalent of sobriety and seriousness is Ramadan. It was the custom (and I'm a witness) during Ramadan for men to remove their shirts and walk along the streets beating their bare backs with chains to pay penance. Not a pretty sight, but on the other hand, when the Ayatollah returned and threw us Americans out of the country, you should have seen the riots, car burnings, liquor shop breakins (to use liquor to light fires), and amid all of that, little children riding their bicycles alongside and inside the rioting crowds as if this was normal behavior. I don't know--maybe for these folks it was normal. I'm glad I got out of town on the last airliner allowed into the country.

marat

THANK you for explaining what this thread is all about. Saw it yesterday before anybody had responded to Nigel, and thought how bizarre ! Have the troll posters sunk to a new low in kinkiness? Gosh, I'm sitting here laughing at myself ....

whoops

sorry-I thought flaggelants were things that make you fart.

BeatChick

Well, I know that flatulence IS the fart! : )

scarlett

MS Beat Chick!!!-now I know why we thought we knew each other!!
I, on the other hand, never talk about bodily functions.They are so ----- bodily~ :0)


Have a nice day,ya'll,Scarlett

Leslie

You can read further details about this custom in Thursday, March 28th's Wall Street Journal. The article is on the front page.

BeatChick

Welllll, Miss Scarlett - that was purely accidental. Giving myself away like that. Anywho!

Bodily, bodily, bodily...seems like one could make a haiku out of that but yet one is now sure how.

Sue, LOL, must I go out today to buy my 2x4 in time for the holiday? For penance, etc.?

; )

scarlett/c

Beat Chick-
IHaveyourHaikuHEre

G.O'H

Katie Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler,

GO TO YOUR ROOM!

Until you can muster up a PROPER and NICE haiku (there are many Fodor and Haiku police watching), you shan't be allowed to leave your room.

kso

no haiku here.but I noticed that puppies are writing in on certain threads now.LOL~what do puppies know about bras?

BeatChick

I had always hoped that puppies wouldn't pay attention. Does this mean I have to walk around fully clothed around the dog now? Mercy!! ; )