27.03.2026
The Polish Easter rollercoaster officially starts with Palm Sunday. People bring beautiful, colorful palms to churches. Then comes a Holy Week with Good Friday when it’s a time for quiet reflection and fasting. Saturday is all about preaparing perfect święconka basket for blessing. The main event is on Sunday when we share the blessed food at a big family breakfast. Then Monday comes and with it crazy water fights of Lany Poniedziałek.
But what are all these traditions really about? Keeping beautiful Polish roots alive. Did you know that the Polish Easter eggs are called Pisanki? But depending how you make them they have totally diffrent names- pisanki refers to ones decorated with hot wax, kraszanki are dyed a solid color. There are also other decorated with colorful yarn, petals or paper cutouts. This tradition is a lot of fun for the little ones.
What about Polish traditional Easter food?
There are of course some differences depending the region. But the famous soup Żurek (with hard boiled egg or biała kiełbasa) is number one in each polish home during Easter.
And eggs in all different kinds: stuffed with fish or champinion paste, eggs with mayo or chorseraddish and famous sałatka jarzynowa which base ingredient are of course eggs.
You can also try roasted meat and sausages or duckk stuffed with apples all with a glimpse of chorseraddish or ćwikła sauce (which are bassicly beetroots with chorseraddish).
We can’t imagine Easter without cakes. Mazurek is a traditional, low-crust Easter cake, baked primarily from shortcrust pastry, walnuts or marzipan. It is characterized by rich decorations with dried fruit. Another one, Baba drożdżowa, a fluffy and light yeast cake, often flavored with lemon, vanilla, or raisins, and glazed or dusted with powdered sugar. Yet there is no Easter without this one- sernik (cheesecake) which consist cottage cheese, eggs, sugar and butter, often with the addition of dried fruit, lemon zest or vanilla.
Watch out on Easter Monday
Easter Monday has no specific liturgical rite but the second day of Easter is rich in folk rituals. It is also known as Wet Monday or simply Śmigus-dyngus.
According to tradition, after a quiet and family-oriented Easter Sunday, the “crazy” celebrations began on Monday. In the past, even on the night from Sunday to Monday, dyngusi and other costumed people would set out to cause mischief, frolic and throw water. Social life was in full swing, with family and neighbors visiting and the great watering of the land. This custom has survived to this day. It has pagan roots and stems from the symbolism of water, which symbolizes the power of creation, purification and healing. The widespread dousing of oneself with water on Easter Monday was a magical practice. People seemed to encourage nature to imitate them and ask for the appropriate amount of water for plant growth in spring. Today, this custom is practiced mainly by children and teenagers, but if someone douses you with water, remember that it’s simply part of Polish tradition.
Are you ready to taste Polish Easter already? Happy Easter to all!🐰 🐥 🐣 🌸 🌿