Easter Monday. © Clara Natoli / Morguefile / 2004.
The date for Easter Monday varies wildly every year.
It is the Monday immediately after Easter Sunday.
It is an official holiday for everyone in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, as well as most of Europe. In Poland, not even the Communists had dared trying to abolish the legal holiday. In Canada, mostly only government workers have the day off. In the United States, it is a day off only in North Carolina.
By Easter Monday, most of the Easter Festivities are over, and leftover Easter Lily plants at the shops start to get marked down.
Some places, though, still carrying on with older Easter Monday traditions. In England, egg-rolling is still practised. Though exact rules and procedures vary by region, they all involve rolling hard-boiled eggs down hills.
Other Easter Monday traditions:
- Hare Pie Day contests are held in Hallaton, Leicestershire;
- In Battersea, London, an Easter Monday parade has been held since 1885;
- In Biddenden, Kent, cakes made to resemble two women are given out (the two women who started this custom in 1100 AD are said to have been Siamese twins );
- In Regent’s Park, London, there is a “Harness Horse” Parade;
- In America, Easter Egg rolls are held on the White House Lawn in Washington;
- In Italy, it is a day for spring picnics, more time with family;
- In Spain, chocolate treats called “Monas de Pascua” with toy surprises inside given to children on Easter Monday;
- In Poland, this is a favourite day for weddings. And a fair called “Emaus” is held in the Zwierzyniec suburb of Kraków, with rides and things to buy;
In some cultures, Easter Monday is a day to sprinkle women with water, saying “may you never wither.” Often holy water from the church is used, to which a scent or perfume is added. In some cultures, on the next day — Easter Tuesday — women got to do the same to men, except using buckets of water, not just sprinkles. This is practised in countries such as Poland, Slovakia, etc. In Polish, it is called “Śmigus-dyngus” (aka Dyngus Day, aka Wet Monday.) In Ukranian, it is called “Oblyvanyi Ponedilok” (“Drenching Monday”.)
In Slovakia, young men make whips (called “korba”) from willow branches , and lightly whip the legs of girls with them. Girls they manage to catch give them in exchange a small trinket.
History Notes
On Easter Monday in 1916, Padraig Pearse led an uprising in Dublin against the British. In front of the main Post Office, Pearse read the words which would lead a few years later to Irish independence:
“Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom… We declare the right of the people to Ireland to the ownership of Ireland…”
