27. 3. 2024
The Wednesday before Maundy Thursday is called Sazometná. This is because all the longings and spleens were expelled from the house by sweeping the chimney. However, the name Ugly Wednesday was more popular. It is the day Judas betrayed Jesus. According to customs, it is not good to frown on this day, the bad mood would then last the whole year.
Passion, or Holy Week, begins on Palm Sunday, and its main period is referred to as the Easter Triduum: it begins on Maundy Thursday evening, continues on Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and ends on Easter Sunday with the celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection. This three-day peak of the Christian liturgical year symbolizes Christ’s crucifixion and victory over death.
But “Ugly Wednesday” is also of great importance within the Passion Week, i.e. the day when Judas Iscariot, one of Christ’s twelve disciples, according to legend, betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. In the Gospel of John, we learn that Judas was moved by conscience and brought the thirty pieces of silver back to the high priests and elders and said: “I have sinned, I have betrayed innocent blood”. Then he walked away to hang himself.
We should smile on an ugly Wednesday, because then the bad mood might last the whole year – that’s why it’s “ugly”.
On Ugly Wednesday, it was customary to prepare “ugly food” – usually it was potato or other pancakes and various “crumbs”, i.e. dishes that looked untidy on the plate. Easter pastries known as yudas were also being prepared. It was done in the shape of the letter J or a knot to resemble the betrayer of Jesus. Judas should not be eaten until the next day, i.e. Maundy Thursday. And the superstition says that whoever bites into the delicacy before dawn will be healthy for the whole year.
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