A taste of Easter in Poland is coming to World Museum Liverpool on Saturday 23rd March.
Community organisation Merseyside Polonia is celebrating Easter with two special family events aimed at giving people an insight into Polish culture and bringing communities together.
Traditional Polish family Easter workshops will take place at the World Museum, William Brown Street, on Saturday, 23rd March from 11 am till 4 pm and are free for everybody to attend.
There will be an opportunity to find out more about Polish Easter traditions, from Fat Thursday when people tuck into doughnuts – the Polish equivalent of Pancake Tuesday – to Wet Monday when people pour water over each other – in the past it might have been symbolic of cleansing but now it’s just for fun!!
Children will be invited to decorate an egg in a traditional way or make a “palm” for Palm Sunday, and a large decorative Easter egg will be on display over the weekend in the Museum before being taken to the Town Hall on Monday to be presented to the Lord Mayor.
On Monday 25th March, representatives from the Polish community will attend the Town Hall where they will share a real egg with the Lord Mayor – as Polish people do on Easter morning at a special breakfast to grant each other good wishes.
The Lord Mayor will also be shown a Polish Easter basket containing symbolic food, an egg for new life, salt to preserve food and a little statuette of a lamb to symbolise Christ’s victory over death. This is traditionally taken to church to be blessed on the Saturday before Easter
Following this there will be a presentation of a large symbolic Easter Egg decorated to represent the Polish Community and its links with Liverpool.
Project co-ordinator, Gosia McKane, said: “The popularity of our Polish Easter family workshops is growing from year to year; last year over 500 people attended the events.
“It’s uplifting to see how culture can build bridges between different communities. For me that’s what Merseyside Polonia is about – developing positive relations – and we are proud to be part of this great city where there are so many different cultures to inspire”.
