Flogging Festivals (1)

Floggings were given throughout history not only for punishment but also for medical, sexual, religious and magical purposes, and even for the fun of it.

Even today, there are some festivals that involve flogging. We will not include those in which floggings are given for religious or magical reasons, but those that are celebrated today because of tradition or for fun. If you know of any other, please send us it.

The pomlazka ⁽¹⁾

This is a flogging festival celebrated in the eastern Czech Republic  on the Easter (Velikonocni Pondeli, from Veliké noci or Great Nights) Monday. Pomlazka (from pomladit or "make younger" in Czech) is the name of both the whip and the festival. It comes from the pagan pre-Christian times, and celebrates the arrival of the spring.  It is also celebrated in  in western Slovakia, where the whip's name is korbac.

There is a similar festival in Poland, called Śmigus-dyngus, meaning whipping and dousing , but nowadays the Śmigus part is all but forgotten, and the festival is just about dousing the girls.

The festivity consists in flogging the women on their legs and buttocks with a whip made with freshly cut puppy willow twigs, traditionally braided by the wielder himself (even when now there are commercial ones, because it is not easy to get willow twigs in a modern city, and even where it is, many modern users don’t know how to braid one). The whip is braided with from 3 to 24 twigs depending on the handiness of the maker (the most common are from 8 twigs).

It was believed that flogging a woman after winter, at the beginning of the spring, would bring good luck and a good harvest for the community and, as the freshness and strength of the twigs passed to the women, they would become more healthy and fertile.

After several days of preparations, men and boys braiding the whips, women baking cakes and decorating eggs (which should be fresh and complete, for fertility symbolism), the day finally comes.

Groups of boys and young men, many with traditional clothing, walk the streets looking for girls to flog. They also enter the houses, where the elders are waiting them with a table prepared with all the Easter goodies. Even when walking outside will get a girl wet and whipped, she can’t avoid it by staying at home. But, of course, most girls want to be whipped. Teenagers being as they are, any girl that is not flogged will feel inadequate, neglected and even offended. In Poland, she could even be considered "beznadziejna", hopeless (for marriage).

When they catch a girl, they first douse her (for “cleansing” them for the next year), if at a house, by forcing her under the shower, if outdoors, by throwing her in a stream or using a hose or buckets. Then they flog them with the pomlazka. After thoroughly wet and flogged, the girls give the floggers decorated eggs (“kraslice”), saving the most beautiful for her preferred boy (who, if the interest is mutual, is the one that flogged her harder). They also tie a ribbon to the whip. The more ribbons on their whips, the prouder the boys are.

For older boys or for men the treat, instead of eggs, is Třešňovice, the traditional Czech cherry brandy, traditionally hand made in each house. Of course, this makes that, later in the day, after dousing and flogging many women, and tasting many glasses of Třešňovice, the festivities get more intense, and the floggings more enthusiastic.

The town is then full of groups of boys and young men chasing girls and young women, some of the later scantily dressed, with the wet clothes clinging to the body, and everybody seems to have a good time.

A girl from Northern Moravia says:

"Where I'm from, the boys not just run around to whip you and get an egg or if they are older a shot of home-made brandy,  they come and throw you in a stream, or put your head under a water pipe to be sure to give you a good shower... and NOT just once"

And if you want to get Freudian, the whip could be considered a phallic symbol and the ribbons at its end, semen (and the girls give back, what else, eggs).

⁽¹⁾ This article was given as the source for information on the pomlazka by Prague TV, a Czech guide in English to the city of Prague. (back)

Published: 02/16/06

Rev.:  05/10/06