Velika Noč (That's Easter for non-Slovene speakers)...

Traditional Easter Meal

Happy Easter (or Velika Noč) everyone. Ok ok I'm a week late I know but holidays and celebrations are always a great time for learning more about the Slovene culture. The first time I noticed something was slightly different was on the way to church on Palm Sunday. Lots of people seemed to be carrying branches to church. This is because they get them blessed so that when they take them home, the house will be blessed.

Another difference for me was that Good Friday is not celebrated in Slovenia, it is just another working day. As a church, we took the opportunity to have a stall with literature in the square near the place we hold our Sunday meetings. We did something similar at Christmas and so I had a fair idea as to what was expected. Unfortunately my Slovene is not yet at the standard to have long conversations. Instead I handed out booklets about Trubar (the Slovene reformer) along with a leaflet inviting people to our Sunday service. It wasn't very busy on the Friday afternoon although I did have one notable encounter. I was standing at the stall grabbing some more booklets when I noticed that some police officers were walking towards me. The other people from the church (who all speak Slovene) were all busy in conversations so I tried not to panic. Fortunately they were able to speak English and instead of being told off for the stall (as I expected) they were looking for a missing person. I am sorry that the old man was missing but at the same time I am extremely grateful that they were willing to speak to me in English and weren't demanding an explanation for what was going on!
The stall was in the square on both the Friday and the Saturday. I wasn't able to help out on the Saturday but I heard that it was quite busy and that people from church sang songs and played music to the passersby. Easter Sunday itself was a lovely day. The church was packed and there were definitely people who'd been visiting the stall there. Please be praying for all these visitors that they would be asking more questions and that God would be changing them and bringing them to Him.

Unlike in the UK, Slovenia has a traditional Easter meal. This is made up of šunka (ham) representing the body of Christ, hren (horseraddish) representing the nails, pirhi (decorated eggs especially for Easter) representing the blood and potica (the cake, traditionally made in a circle) representing the crown of thorns. Obviously these all have their roots in the Catholic church but it does taste good!

As I said previously, Good Friday isn't a holiday here but Easter Monday is. The school holidays are also not based around Easter but instead the first week of May, due to Labour Day. This means that this next week will be quite quiet for me. I have no language class or youth group. I've therefore decided to take the opportunity to visit a friend of mine in Prague. It's only 10 hours each way on the coach... Despite this, it will be good for me to have a short break and a chance to visit a country I've never been to before!