Running water from a stream or river was exclusively used for splashing or sprinkling water over girls. (source: M. Habanek)
Unlike the celebrations of the resurrection of Christ, old Slovak Easter traditions such as whipping and splashing water on girls have lost their essence over the years.
These are ancient folk customs dating back to antiquity. Single men from the past would sport the mask of a wild dog or wolf. They had leather strips attached to their hands, and they would whip every single girl they met with the strips.
“In our case, it was a spring twig,” ethnologist Katarína Nádaská told The Slovak Spectator’s sister publication My Nitra.
A single young man touched the hands of a single girl to make their hands work well. He touched the hips so that the girl would give birth to many healthy children during her life, and he touched her legs so that they would be good for dancing and work, the expert added.
