Dnes je ‘mokrá modriny pondelok’. Today is ‘WET WELTS MONDAY’. I apologize for the accuracy of my written Slovak. I am certain that this sentence is incomprehensible to my Slovak friends because it’s a Google translation of a series of words that need to be explained even in English. I can’t seem to find a clear equivalent in Slovak for ‘welt’, which not a ‘scar’ or a ‘bruise’ as Google suggests, but rather “a ridge or wale on the surface of the body, as from a blow of a stick or whip”. PREFACE Yesterday, when this article was pre-published it generated some annoyance and agreement, but only a single complaint from a Slovak who stated that foreigners cannot understand Slovak traditions and customs and therefore shouldnt have an opinion lest others in the world look down on Slovakia. A person can thoroughly understand something and still not agree with it. My purpose here is not to denigrate the culture of any country, but to speak up for people being abused, in this case women. I wrote this article not from the view of an ethnocentric foreigner, but as a result of hearing hundreds of Slovak women over the years tell how much they didnt like what happens to them on the day after Easter Sunday, the humiliation, the degradation and often the physical harm done by drunken men in the name of tradition on this day. It would be good if Slovak women spoke up and published what they whisper. Unless and until they do, men will continue doing what they have done since before the advent of Christianity. WET WELTS MONDAY, the day after Easter Sunday is a traditional day of ritual abuse of women in Slovakia. Not everyone would agree with this portrayal, Slovak women seem to complain and tolerate it, while Slovak men unashamedly enjoy themselves. Men are the ones who perpetuate this custom partly because they get to do things to girls and women with complete impunity. However you look at it, it is still abuse. Of course, Wet Welts Monday is not called that in Slovakia, in the Slovak language it is referred to innocuously as Veľkonočný Pondelok, or Šibačka Oblievačka or Polievačkaor Oblievačka. Wet Welts Monday is my name for it, mine is more descriptive of what happens. It is the one Monday each year when women get repeatedly ‘beaten’ publicly with special willow switches carried by men and even little boys. It is the day when women are held forcibly by gangs of men and doused with buckets of cold water or dunked in the bathtub. There are traditional reasons for doing this, dating back to a time when this was seen as a health inducing activity. Let me clarify something, by ‘beaten’ I mean that the blows are mostly symbolic. Women’s reactions to being ‘willow switched’ varies. Most are long suffering, feigning amusement, others are infuriated but powerless by the humiliation, some complain that sometimes the beatings really hurt and raise welts. Wet Welts Monday happens when Slovakia is closed down and the sidewalks are metaphorically rolled up until after the holidays (Good Friday, White Saturday, Easter Sunday, Wet Welts Monday, Right Back Atcha Tuesday). Friday, Saturday and Sunday are normal religious holy days that commemorate the life of Jesus. On Monday, however, men and boys will carry braided willow branch switches, tied with colorful ribbons, through the streets and playfully beat the Slovak girls and women before going door to door and repeatedly dousing females with containers of water. The women have to change out of their soaked clothing a dozen times that day. This is strange but what is really bizarre is that the females have to reward such behavior with shots of hard liquor and handfuls of chocolate bonbons and money. The liquor, candies and money are not bribes to stop the behavior, the women are actually paying the men for abusing them, while energizing and intoxicating them further to move on down the street and find the next cowering female. For those who suffer at the hands of this tradition, and then reward the perpetrators, send a mixed message. On the following Tuesday, the women are allowed their revenge, but few return the insanity. Tuesday is the day when women come out of hiding and take down the home barricades against the marauding males, reminiscent of scenes from World War Z. For some women, Tuesday is the day they begin the journey home after having sought their annual cultural asylum over the border in Austria where they dont welt and wet their women. I confess that I am an outsider, but there seems to be an opportunity to establish better national customs and make the concept of ‘gender equality’ traditional. If you are Slovak, please feel free to recount what you experienced today, good or bad, together with your photographs.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 22:12:03 +0000
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