A Slovakia Easter – White Saturday (Easter Saturday)

In the past, White Saturday, another important day in the Slovakia Easter, was the day when the villagers would take the opportunity to light fires and burn everything old and harmful. This tradition was known as the “burning of Judas”. It was also thought that looking at the embers of these fires had magical protective [...]

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A Slovakia Easter – Great Friday (Good Friday)

The villagers believed that Great Friday was the day when warlocks and witches would come out. Legend had it that the witches would come and ruin gardens and steal the milk from cows. Meanwhile, warlocks were supposed to stroll around the village, causing harm to any people that they met. It was thought that the [...]

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A Slovakia Easter – Green Thursday (Maundy Thursday)

Green Thursday (Maundy Thursday) was the traditional day when people would cleanse themselves. They would always wash themselves with running water, as they believed that the running water was alive.
Girls who longed for beautiful skin, without freckles or spots, would bathe in a running spring, before sunrise on Green Thursday. The villagers also believed that [...]

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A Slovakia Easter – Flower Sunday (Palm Sunday)

The first day of the Slovakia Easter was Flower Sunday (Palm Sunday). On this day, the villagers would bring green twigs and branches called “bahniatka” to church. The priest would bless the twigs and branches with water and a prayer.
When the villagers returned home from the church they would then place them [...]

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Slovak Easter Traditions – A look at a traditional Easter in Slovakia

Easter is a very important time of the year in Slovakia, as you would expect from such an extremely Christian country. However, as well as being a religious festival, Easter in Slovakia is also a time of tradition.
The next series of articles looks at the 6 important days of Easter in Slovakia and the [...]

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Slovakia triumph in the Czech – Slovakia World Cup 2010 qualifier

It was a scrappy match, not helped by an awful referee, and if truth be told a draw would have been a fair result. Instead, Slovakia have triumphed 2-1 over their closest rivals and qualification for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa is beginning to look more and more likely with every [...]

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Krasny je zivot wins Dolny Kubin Repete

Vlado Salis, Heart of Europe’s very own singing chef, won the 2009 Dolny Kubin repete, last night, with the beautiful song Krasny je zivot. You can see a clip from the song below — apologises in advance for the enthusiastic if somewhat tone deaf audience (feel free to comment on Vlado’s performance and remember [...]

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Slovakia accommodation guide relaunched

Earlier this month, the Slovakia accommodation portal Slovakia Travel Guide was relaunched, as part of the on-going re-development of the Heart of Europe suite of websites.  The new-look portal has been designed to be even more user-friendly and to fit seamlessly with the Slovakia – Heart of Europe.

The web site allows visitors to search [...]

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Slovakia festival – The Three Kings

The Slovakia festival, the Three Kings is a holiday of obligation in Slovakia, on the 6th January, in honour of the Three Wise Men, who came to bow before the newly born, baby Jesus. In the past, this day was celebrated with people going round houses in the village, dressed up as the three [...]

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The Witches’ Days – St. Lucia

Before the Gregorian calendar, also known as the “Everlasting” calendar, came into use, St. Lucia’s Day actually fell on the shortest day of the year. It was the most significant day amongst the witches’ days and according to people’s beliefs at that time, it was the day when all the bad powers reached their climax. [...]

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