All my female Czech friends hate this tradition and refuse to visit their hometowns as it is widely practiced outside of the big cities in the Czech Republic. They usually go into hiding by taking holidays abroad.

It was many years, before I got to witness this tradition first hand in a small spa town of Podebrady. In the early morning, parents with their children were visiting neighbors. The child hold in one hand a huge basket filled with painted eggs and the other had the pomlaska. They stood nervously in front of the adult and recited the Easter rhyme.

Hody hody doprovody
dejte vejce malovany
Nedate-li malovany
dejte aspon bily
však Vam slepicka snese jiny

Here is the translation:

“Give me a colored egg,
if you won´t give me a colored egg,
give me a white one
and get your hen to lay another.”

Afterwards, they received chocolate or painted eggs. Ahh, how cute.

Of course, who knows? Maybe, they would think our tradition of having an Easter egg hunt is strange. What? You don’t give kids decorated eggs, you hide them and they have to hunt for them. Savages!

Happy Easter