In Finland it has been a bit of tradition (dying one, I hear, but nonetheless) for kids to take willow branches (a lot of them), with preferably lots of catkin, during Easter, decorate the branches with colourful papers, tassels, yarns, whatevers.
They then gear up as a "trulli", basically a witch of sorts, but any old costume goes and go from house to house "virpomassa", yes whipping, but mostly just tapping people with the decorated branches.
It's pretty much our Halloween, since not many used to go candyhunting during the Ween, but on Easter instead.
And the whipping part was meant to drive bad things out of you. "Virvon, varvon, tuoreeks, terveeks tulevaks vuodeks. Vitsa sulle, palkka mulle." which roughly translates to something like "I flick and whips for health so grisp for coming year. Branch for you, pay for me." and yes, it does sound silly and clumsy even in Finnish. There are so other sayings as well, but that's the one I know.
You then gave the branch to the one receiving the "blessing" of sorts and in return they give you chocolate eggs, candy in general or just a sweet hug if you weren't prepared. Some times even money exchanged hands when dealing with relatives. Granted, the parents going out with the kids usually took that, but it was somewhat spent on candy, so it was all good.
The old tradition even made you wait for a week before you could go ask for your payment. Guess back in the day people wanted to see that the "treatment" worked before paying.
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In Finland it has been a bit of tradition (dying one, I hear, but nonetheless) for kids to take willow branches (a lot of them), with preferably lots of catkin, during Easter, decorate the branches with colourful papers, tassels, yarns, whatevers.
They then gear up as a "trulli", basically a witch of sorts, but any old costume goes and go from house to house "virpomassa", yes whipping, but mostly just tapping people with the decorated branches.
It's pretty much our Halloween, since not many used to go candyhunting during the Ween, but on Easter instead.
And the whipping part was meant to drive bad things out of you. "Virvon, varvon, tuoreeks, terveeks tulevaks vuodeks. Vitsa sulle, palkka mulle." which roughly translates to something like "I flick and whips for health so grisp for coming year. Branch for you, pay for me." and yes, it does sound silly and clumsy even in Finnish. There are so other sayings as well, but that's the one I know.
You then gave the branch to the one receiving the "blessing" of sorts and in return they give you chocolate eggs, candy in general or just a sweet hug if you weren't prepared. Some times even money exchanged hands when dealing with relatives. Granted, the parents going out with the kids usually took that, but it was somewhat spent on candy, so it was all good.
The old tradition even made you wait for a week before you could go ask for your payment. Guess back in the day people wanted to see that the "treatment" worked before paying.