EASTER IN SLOVENIA

Slovenia is a predominantly Catholic country, and so Easter is quite significant. Even for the many people who are now atheist (a result of 50 years of communism), usually they will observe various Catholic customs and traditions because that is what you do (or to keep Grandma happy).

In Slovenia, only Easter Monday is a public holiday. 

On Palm Sunday, Catholics take branches to church with them, and in Maribor it is usually the branches in the first photo. In other parts of Slovenia, they take colourful 'branches' called butarici as in the second photo.

On Good Friday, Slovenes typically fast. On Saturday they go to mass and take with them a basket of food to be blessed by the priest. They break the fast on Sunday morning when they eat the "blessed" food for 'breakfast' (think early lunch). The basket will contain ham (that represents Jesus' body), eggs painted with red (Jesus' blood), horseradish (represents the nails) and potica (Slovene bread/cake which symbolises Jesus' crown and shown on the right). They meet together as a family group and to eat this blessed food. One friend told us that you have to eat seven pieces of blessed food.

The art of painting easter eggs is quite elaborate in Slovenia, and different regions paint or decorate the eggs differently. Some use wax and dyes to paint patterns on the eggs in red, white and black. Some use paint and have typical pictures of flowers.

Most people we know hard boil the eggs and dye them (often boiling the eggs in water with red onion skins and vinegar to make the red colour and making patterns using parsley leaves or ties). 

Here are some pictures of Slovene Easter Eggs:

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE GOSPEL

People are (sometimes) interested in how we celebrate Easter - as Australians and as protestants. One neighbour once said to us "You (meaning protestants) don't celebrate Easter, do you?" We told her that Easter is actually the most important celebration in our church, but that we celebrate it differently to the Catholic church. Generally people here have no idea about what protestantism is all about - its just one of those crazy cults or religions from a foreign country.

PRAYER POINTS

• Please pray for us a family and for our church family, that we can be reminded of what Jesus has done for us in dying on the cross for us.
• Pray that God will give us many opportunities to talk about Easter and our traditions with Slovenes around us. Pray especially that we can lead the discussion to Jesus.
  
• Pray that we and others from our church will invite our friends to church on Easter Sunday and that God will prompt many friends and family to come. Pray for Sandi as he gives the talk, that he will clearly explain the gospel.
  
• Pray that Slovene Christians will speak with their friends about the gospel, that Slovenes might look beyond the traditions that they follow without understanding them and that they will come to know the real Jesus and why he came to die for them.