Spring cleaning is done, the clean windows shine, the cakes and pâté are in the oven, and children paint Easter eggs.

This is a sign that preparations for Easter are in progress in Poznań homes. This holiday, in which spring wakes from the winter slumber, belongs to our favourites .  
Poles have two favourite holidays: Christmas in the winter and Easter in the spring. The dispute between the superiority of one holiday over the other has been going on for ages. In Poland this dispute is the synonym of an endless discussion, during which one party cannot convince the other. Some people fancy Christmas Eve, the Holy Wafer and presents, while others prefer blessed Easter food, Easter eggs and Easter Monday's water dousing (Śmigus Dyngus). 95% of Polish people go to church on Holy Saturday to bless their Easter food. Easter eggs, i.e. painted eggs, bread, butter and ham are brought to be blessed even by those who ordinarily are not very religious.

In Poland the Easter Week beings on Palm Sunday. On this day symbolic palms are blessed in churches; in Poland they are made from dried flowers or developing willow twigs. 
The Paschal Triduum, i.e. a religious celebration, starts on Holy Thursday. The Holy Thursday Liturgy is extraordinary. In the Catholic Church this is the commemoration of the institution of the Holy Mass that is the Last Supper which Jesus ate with his disciples. Good Friday is devoted to events connected with the Passion of Christ and His death on the cross. On this day even the less religious Poles observe a fast; during the day they eat only three very small meat-less meals. However, the Poles' favourite day connected with Easter is Holy Saturday. On this day most Poles observe religious traditions. No one can imagine Easter without the festive breakfast, during which people eat the previously blessed food. That is why the churches are filled with people who bring the ”święconka” (blessed Easter food), i.e. a basket with painted eggs, bread, a lamb made of butter, ham and salt on Holy Saturday.
The celebration of Easter Sunday begins with the morning Resurrection Mass. According to tradition, it should start at dawn. Although in some churches it commences at midnight. After the Mass, families sit down to the traditional Easter breakfast. Only then may one eat the food blessed on the previous day. Tradition prescribes to lay the table with a white tablecloth. It is a perfect background for the dishes of ham and sausages, and bread, colourful Easter eggs and green boxtree, an ever-green plant that adorns everything: sausages, ham, horseradish, lamb made of butter, yeast cake (babka) with raisins and white frosting, cheese strudels, round cake with nuts (kołacz) and Easter wheat bread. In every home blessed eggs, cut in quarters, are laid on a separate plate. Family members share the egg and exchange wishes with each other.
The second day of Easter holidays is called “Wet Monday”.

The name comes from the so-called Śmigus Dyngus, i.e. a pagan custom of pouring somebody with water as a sign of cleansing. The tradition dates back hundreds of years  and it has remained in an almost unchanged form to the present day. Therefore, one must be really careful while walking on Easter Monday on the streets of Poznań, because a band of young children may run from around the corner and pour a bucket with cold water all over you. However, to keep the tradition, everybody has to be sprinkled at least with water.