I got this Easter whipping update from a woman calling herself Dana:
Instead of Easter eggs we get whipped and splashed. Yup, that’s Easter in Eastern Europe.
Guys whip and splash single girls with cold water and a whip called korbac. No mercy! After that, girls thankfully give them some Easter Eggs, ribbon for their korbac and something to eat and drink!
Damn, I love our traditions!
The pictures, though not the anecdote, appear to come from here, which indicates that the festivities take place typically on the day after Easter.
They are upholding one of Europe’s more bizarre — and controversial — traditions: the Easter beating of women. It’s an old fertility rite that dates back to the Middle Ages; the only thing is that, in the Czech Republic, it’s not confined to the history books. It is a ritual still assiduously practised by Czechs today. On the morning of Easter Monday, men and boys whip women of all ages, around the legs with special whips made out of twisted willow branches. The women reward the men for this with a painted Easter egg. The symbolism is pretty clear: the whipping, say Czechs, ensures the woman stays fertile and beautiful. No woman escapes: women of all ages get a whipping, from children to grandmothers. In fact, it’s considered rude to leave one of the women in a gathering out, even if she’s 70 years old. The whipping is supposed to be symbolic, more a gentle tap.
Remember the Czech easter whipping tradition? Or, how about this vintage birching photo that has circulated on the internet for decades? I just found a Czech “Happy Easter” postcard version of the birching photo. It might be the original publication, or the postcard publisher may have yoinked it from the Eastern European version of the public domain, I can’t tell. Either way, I’ve always seen this as a deliciously fat-bottomed wife getting disciplined by her no-nonsense husband:
Truly, who among us does not aspire to the sort of wealth, power, and leisure that would let us lounge on cushions getting serviced by one harem girl while another stands nearby urging the first one to greater efforts with a riding crop? Or maybe that’s just me?
No, turns out it’s not just me:
Artwork is from Claudio Trinca’s Middle Eastern Nights.
The folks at Mood Pictures released Martial Law II in December, but it took a few weeks for the review copy to reach me, and much longer for Bethie and I to find time to sit down and watch the movie. We finally managed it two nights ago, and found ourselves watching another solid production from these Eastern European (yes, that means subtitles) caning movie producers.
If you’ve read my reviews of their other productions, you’ll know they mostly do severe caning work. You won’t be disappointed if that’s what you are looking for, but this movie has a little bit more. It opens with four female prisoners (or are they reluctant draftees?) being disciplined by two severe female guards toting plastic submachine guns. One by one, the girls are made to strip and stand against the bars of their cell for 25 strokes each with a leather strap.
The strapping scenes were a little disappointing to me, as the strap seemed to land all over the girls. The girls were fairly stoic and surly-looking (only one of them showed much sense of feeling the strap) and their bottoms didn’t show as much marking as one would expect from 25 hard honest strap blows. Still, it was a refreshing addition; some other Mood Pictures titles have been caning-only.
Then one of the girls was taken before the camp commandant for a little display of nudity and amateur lesbianism on his desk. He noticed (supposedly) the marks on her bottom, and demanded an explanation from the guards. He learned that the girls had been disciplined without his orders, and he was shocked (simply shocked!) to find that sort of activity going on in his establishment. He immediately ordered the female guard responsible to be arrested and given 100 hard caning strokes.
The camera finds the soon-to-be-arrested guard hosing down three of her prisoners with a power washer. Although very brief, this is actually my favorite scene in the movie; the girls are cowering and shivering as the water is whipping at them. It’s authentic-looking and cheesy at the same time, and I’ve never seen anything exactly like it. Call it the the low-budget, high-velocity modern version of the old brutal-prison-guard-with-a-firehose cliche. Plus, these are the cleanest girls you’ll ever see in a caning movie:
Then it’s on to the hundred strokes of the cane, sternly delivered. This is authentic hard caning and no mistake. A minor grumble I had: the victim is so skinny, her ribs and vertebrae stuck out horribly in all directions when they put her on the frame. It’s hard for me to enjoy a caning when all I want to do is take the girl down off her bench and feed her a milkshake. Don’t they have cheeseburgers in Hungary?
There were also some lighting flaws, resulting in harsh shadows that made it difficult to see her facial reactions. Also, the female guard doing the caning seemed uninterested in style; the result was wraparound with every stroke, so that the girl’s right thigh wound up welted far worse than any part of her bottom. That’s fine if you love severity, but off-putting if you like precision and love bottom welts.
On the plus side, the metal caning bench with wrist cuffs looks deliciously severe and very handy. The caning was vigorous, with breaks every 25 strokes for the half-naked-doctor-girl (the cutest woman in the movie, a squeezable brunette who appears to be wearing nothing but a white lab coat) to examine the canee and pronounce her fit for more caning. And there was no way for this girl to avoid showing her pained reactions. In a nice touch, they showed her getting “medical attention” (some lotion and a cigarette) after the caning, and she was visibly twitching and shaking a little bit. Authenticity that will surely delight, if you really like seeing hard canings and their aftermath.
As usual with Mood Pictures, there is a comforting series of bloopers among the DVD extras showing the actors clowning around with each other and laughing together over their mistakes. When a production is severe, it’s always nice to see some evidence that the girls are happy to be there and are enjoying themselves.
