Pre-Easter ritual of “burying” sour soup and herring

The Pre-Easter ritual of “burying” sour soup and herring was Lipce’s Great Saturday ceremony for marking the end of the Great Fast. The village boys carried the foods that had tormented them during the fast in a mock funeral procession, making a season of religious restraint give way to noise, mischief, and communal play. In the episode described, however, the ceremony was derailed when Jasiek smashed the pan and drenched Witek.

Custom and Occasion

The ritual took place on Great Saturday, when the boys gathered early in front of the church to bury rye soup and herring, described as the worst tormentors of the Great Fast. The custom was said to have been observed since time immemorial. Its mock funeral gave the boys a public way to cast off the fast’s disliked foods as the village approached Easter.

The Procession

With no farmhands or older lads available, the village boys arranged the ceremony themselves, led by Contrary Jasiek, who was known for his pranks. They had obtained a large pan of rye soup and added various foul ingredients. Witek carried it on his shoulders in a cheese net, while another boy walked beside him dragging a herring carved from wood. Behind them, a crowd of boys shook rattles, clacked wooden noisemakers, and shrieked as they processed around the pond toward the poplar road by the church, where the burial was to take place.

The Prank and Its Aftermath

Just before the procession reached its destination, Jasiek struck the pan with a shovel, breaking it and spilling the soup and its contents over Witek. The boys were delighted, but Witek was angry: he attacked Jasiek with his bare hands and came to blows with others before breaking free and running home. The episode ends not with the intended burial but with the ceremony overturned by a prank and a fight. Hanka added a slap for Witek’s ruined spencer, then sent him to the woods to fetch sedge and whortleberry branches, turning the mishap into another household errand.