For about 10-15 years these days constitute a long weekend for Poles. This became something like a long Mayday weekend in Poland.

We will start with Mar the 3rd, in the reverse order

Read more: May 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Polish Calendar

At the end of summer 2011 when Marie Curie was participating the Solvay Conference in Brussels, she received a telegram from Nobel  Committee in Sweden.  She was awarded the second Nobel  Prize, this time in chemistry. She was recognized for producing a sufficient amount of two new elements, polonium and radium, for establishment their atomic weight and other unusual and radioactive properties.

Marie was not only the first Pole and the first woman to receive a Nobel award (the first one in 1903). She was also the first person who received two Nobel awards in two different areas of science.

Read more: Hundredth Anniversary of Marie Curie’s Chemistry Nobel Award

Kraszanki - uniformly colored eggs

The simplest technique of painting eggs (eggs in Polish are called jaja or jajka) which I remember from my childchood in Silesia - was painting the eggs in natural dyes. For instance eggs cooked in onion skins give a pretty medium light brown color or in redbeets give a deep red. Such eggs are still healthy to eat even if the onions penetrated through the eggs changing its coloration inside. The one-colored eggs looks beautiful in the Easter basket if we have each egg in a different color. The less common natural dyes used for coloring eggs were - leaves of birch or alder which give a beautiful yellow color, carrot and pumpkin for orange, fruit of blackthorn for blue or different grasses and nettle for green. Mixing different main colors gives practically all possible color shades. Check the recipe how to prepare kraszanki from onion skins.

Read more: Easter Eggs

The day-long exhibit was exhausting but very rewarding - meeting so many people interested in Polish culture. Our apprentice Alysa and her grandma Martha were there with us the entire time. Alysa brought her eggs and worked on them all afternoon - explaining the skrobanie process to all whowere interested.

We got to meet an older Polish pisanki artist, Anna Schneider, who came from Arlington with her family. She actually brought a small box with 4 beautiful traditional-style eggs she made which were the deep brown onion-skin dye with scratched-out design. I was so pleased and excited that she brought them. For the short time she stayed at the show, I placed her eggs in the showcase with mine. I made a point of telling Alysa - this is the REAL thing! It's the first time I've met someone who did this technique - aside from Mr. Jerzy Lipka who taught me in Poland back in the ‘70s. She had her family take pictures of her and me with our eggs in the case. I gave her a couple pisanki notecards of mine, and she said she was going to use them to write and send the photos to her sisters in Poland. This is what the "Traditions" thing is all about, and I was so happy Alysa played a big part in it. I'd like to schedule a visit to this lady with Alysa, so we could share a pisanki making session.

Read more: Pisanki Display - Polish Heritage Day in Washington DC

Smigus Dyngus (shming-oos-ding-oos) is an unusual tradition of Easter Monday. This day (Monday after Easter Sunday) is called also in Polish "Wet Monday", in Polish: "Mokry Poniedzialek" or "Lany Poniedzialek". Easter Monday is also a holiday in Poland. It was traditionally the day when boys tried to drench girls with squirt guns or buckets of water. "Smigus" comes from the word smigac meaning swish with a cane since men tap the ankles and legs of the girls.

Read more: Smigus Dyngus and other Polish old Easter Traditions