Easter Celebration in Slovenia, Preddvor

1. EASTER CELEBRATION
IN SLOVENIA

2. Easter is one of the most important and popular
Christian holiday in our country. It fell early this year,
on the 27th of March.

3. Celebration starts with Palm
Sunday. This is the last Sunday
before Easter. On Palm Sunday
people bring olive branches to
church to be blessed. Children
instead of olive branches
bring Palm Sunday bundles.
They are various in different
parts of Slovenia.

4. Easter celebration continues
with the Holy week. On Maundy
Thursday, Good Friday and Holy
Saturday there are special
rituals at the church.
On Holy Saturday early in the
morning priest blesses fire.
People come with wood
mushrooms and take fire home
in their furnace. There they
cook Easter dishes.

5. There they cook Easter dishes. Than they put
them into the Easter basket and carry to church
to be blessed.

6. Our traditional Easter dishes are 'prata', 'potica' (nut roll
with walnut filling), Easter eggs, a cooked ham and
horseradish.
'Prata' is made of bread, ham, eggs, garlic, roasted onion,
sour cream and spice. We mix these ingredients and bake
this mixture in the oven.

7. On Holy Saturday the most
interesting think for children is
dyeing Easter eggs. They need
to be red – they present
Christ's blood. When you have
some red eggs then you can
dye others with different
colours. Traditional way of
decorating the eggs is by
boiling them with onion skins.

9. In the evening on Holy Saturday people go to the
church to Easter Vigil. They pray there and listen the
Easter's Gospel.

10. In the Easter morning
most people attend
the Easter Outdoor
Procession.
After Liturgy they eat
blessed Easter dishes.

12. On Easter
Monday
relatives visit
each other.
Children
exchange the
Easter eggs and
play special
games with
them.

13. Even though Easter is a very
important holiday, only the
Easter Monday is a work-free
and a school-free day in
Slovenia.
Prepared by students from Matija Valjavec
Primary School in Preddvor, Slovenia
April, 2016