Hey Guys! How are you? Did you miss me??? I'm sure you did, you just didn't know how to tell me about it ))) So here I am! Spring is a great time of the year. If you live somewhere with 4 seasons you do know what I'm talking about: nature wakes up, birds are chirping, the grass is getting green, tree buds are turning into beautiful flowers and all the worries and depressions go away. Well, maybe not all of them but at least some weather relates ones at least )) Spring is also the time of one of the most loved and celebrated holidays of Easter. Even if you don't know much about its religious background I am more than sure you still do like it. From my own experience, I know that it is celebrated differently in the US and Ukraine. So here's how Ukrainians celebrate Easter.
To begin with, I want to remind you what spring is a very important season for everyone who's involved in different agricultural activities. I've written about it before and if you missed it here's a link to my story about Ukrainian spring activities:
https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-do-ukrainians-do-in-spring.html
So everything starts on the Palm Sunday or as we call it in Ukraine, Willow Sunday. You see, we don't have palms like in Jerusalem so palm leaves were changed for willow branches since willow is one of the first trees to get bright green buds. On this day Ukrainians make small bouquets out of willow branches and take them to churches to be blessed with the holy water. After the Sunday service, people slightly whip each other with the bunch of branches saying: It's not me whipping, it's the willow is whipping you, Easter is in a week! There is a whole bunch of different traditions connected to this day, and some people believe that if you have a sore throat and you eat a bud from a willow branch blessed on Willow Sunday you will get rid of the sickness almost instantaneously. That's why people keep those bouquets for the whole year will next Willow Sunday. They also believe to have a protective power against anything evil. Monday is the first day of all the fun! Starting Monday all the cleaning and preparations in full swing set off: cleaning in the house, outside the house, cooking and sometimes even some bigger things like painting inside and outside (fences, benches and what's not). One of my grandmothers was very big into Easter preparations. Every spring she would clean all the windows, whitewash inside the house and even paint the wooden floors.
On Thursday all the "dirty" work was supposed to be finished since it is called the Pure Thursday (Maundy Thursday, commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles). In old times people that ran homesteads had to clean every corner of their property paying a lot of attention to barns and stables since even their cattle was supposed to have clean premises for the Easter.
Easter Friday or as we call it Passion Friday is the day when Jesus Christ was actually crucified and to honor him this day no loud music, laughter or any kind of entertainment is allowed. Of course, it's not a must and in big cities, you will not notice any difference between regular Friday and Easter Friday but in smaller towns and villages this peculiarity is usually more noticeable. Another big thing about Easter Friday is that this is the day of baking Paska. It is a traditional Easter bread if you have ever had Panettone that's the closest you can get to Ukrainian Paska. Since it's a yeast-based bread the process of making it is quite challenging and not all ladies of the house have mastered this art. Apart from being not that easy to make there is also a great variety of traditions and rules of behavior when making Paska. Nowadays you can buy Paska in all big supermarket chains since they usually have own bakeries or you can order it from small confectionaries. In my family, Paska is usually baked by my grandfather and my mom in case my grandfather's Paska hasn't turned out well and there is no power in this world to persuade my grandpa to buy one, even if you used to negotiate with terrorists you still won't be able to make him buy a Paska.
For me, Easter Saturday always associated with planting potatoes. My grandfather and I would do it every Easter Saturday together. I don't know if we broke any church rules by doing it but it was our own tradition. In the afternoon we would usually put together an Easter basket and go to church to bless it. According to more strict Easter rules you are supposed to go to the Easter Vigil that starts at midnight and at the end of this service your Easter basket will be blessed by a priest with the Holy Water. With years the church has developed more liberal rules for people who don't go to all church events and created an alternative option that is very popular with many families. We always go to bless our basket on Saturday afternoon.
When I was a kid my parents took me to the Easter Vigil once. I will never forget that experience. It was special because of several reasons. As you know religion was forbidden in the Soviet Union but closer to the end of the soviet union existence many restrictions were ignored by people. One of them was connected to religion and churches. That night all the churches in my native Volodymyr were open and priests were serving the Vigil. I was sitting on my father's shoulders so that I could see the priest dressed in a festive gown and I was breathing in warm night air mixed with incenses. I was too little to understand that it was the smell of freedom in the air. There was a big crowd of people, all of them were happy and joyful, we met a lot of our acquaintances and some relatives. The best part was that we didn't go to one particular church but we made a real tour to a couple of them and everywhere we went there was this great spirit of joy.
What do we put into the Easter Basket? Well, in my family we put an Easter bread in the center, some specially prepared eggs that we call pysanka or krashanka (I plan to write about them a separate story), homemade sausage and salt. In other families, the variety of items can be different, but the Easter bread and eggs are a "must". When people come back from church this food can't be touched till morning unless you went to the night service and came back home early morning, because all family is supposed to get around the table and start their breakfast with the blessed food. Since all the time before Easter is a very strict lent, the breakfast is the first meal when the meat is back on the table. Before starting the meal the eldest person in the family says a short prayer asking God for health and an opportunity to meet the next Easter in the same circle of people. The blessed egg is the first item from the basket to be eaten due to its sacral meaning as a symbol of life and a role it had according to the Bible. The next meal of the day is usually a time when relatives and family friends pay each other a visit.
In Ukraine Easter is celebrated three days. The most fun day is Monday, it's called Wet Monday because it's an official tradition to pour, splash, sprinkle water on girls and young women (you can try it with grandmas too but I don't think they will be very happy about it). Real water battles take place on this day because in order to avoid gender discrimination girls strike back! One year my best friend and his cousin decided to "surprise" me with an unexpected visit to my home. They did the worst thing that could come to their heads - instead of water they used (for some unknown reason) perfume!!!! I couldn't get rid of that smell for the next couple of days.
During all Easter holiday period and till the Holy Trinity Ukrainians don't greet each other differently than "Christ is risen!" and the answer would be "Indeed, he is risen!"
Next Sunday after Easter, we have a so-called Antipascha or St. Thomas day, the day when we go to cemeteries and commemorate our deceased family members and relatives. We bring Easter bread and eggs to share with them and leave lit candles.
So that's my story for today! Hope you had a great Palm Sunday. Ukrainians will abide Palm or as you know now Willow Sunday next week because of the calendar shift that I've described in my Christmas story (https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html).
Have a great Sunday and behave yourself!
As always here are some photos of Easter bread and Easter basket that my best friend was so kind to lend for my story (and she makes the best Easter bread I have ever had in my life!!!)
To begin with, I want to remind you what spring is a very important season for everyone who's involved in different agricultural activities. I've written about it before and if you missed it here's a link to my story about Ukrainian spring activities:
https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-do-ukrainians-do-in-spring.html
So everything starts on the Palm Sunday or as we call it in Ukraine, Willow Sunday. You see, we don't have palms like in Jerusalem so palm leaves were changed for willow branches since willow is one of the first trees to get bright green buds. On this day Ukrainians make small bouquets out of willow branches and take them to churches to be blessed with the holy water. After the Sunday service, people slightly whip each other with the bunch of branches saying: It's not me whipping, it's the willow is whipping you, Easter is in a week! There is a whole bunch of different traditions connected to this day, and some people believe that if you have a sore throat and you eat a bud from a willow branch blessed on Willow Sunday you will get rid of the sickness almost instantaneously. That's why people keep those bouquets for the whole year will next Willow Sunday. They also believe to have a protective power against anything evil. Monday is the first day of all the fun! Starting Monday all the cleaning and preparations in full swing set off: cleaning in the house, outside the house, cooking and sometimes even some bigger things like painting inside and outside (fences, benches and what's not). One of my grandmothers was very big into Easter preparations. Every spring she would clean all the windows, whitewash inside the house and even paint the wooden floors.
On Thursday all the "dirty" work was supposed to be finished since it is called the Pure Thursday (Maundy Thursday, commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles). In old times people that ran homesteads had to clean every corner of their property paying a lot of attention to barns and stables since even their cattle was supposed to have clean premises for the Easter.
Easter Friday or as we call it Passion Friday is the day when Jesus Christ was actually crucified and to honor him this day no loud music, laughter or any kind of entertainment is allowed. Of course, it's not a must and in big cities, you will not notice any difference between regular Friday and Easter Friday but in smaller towns and villages this peculiarity is usually more noticeable. Another big thing about Easter Friday is that this is the day of baking Paska. It is a traditional Easter bread if you have ever had Panettone that's the closest you can get to Ukrainian Paska. Since it's a yeast-based bread the process of making it is quite challenging and not all ladies of the house have mastered this art. Apart from being not that easy to make there is also a great variety of traditions and rules of behavior when making Paska. Nowadays you can buy Paska in all big supermarket chains since they usually have own bakeries or you can order it from small confectionaries. In my family, Paska is usually baked by my grandfather and my mom in case my grandfather's Paska hasn't turned out well and there is no power in this world to persuade my grandpa to buy one, even if you used to negotiate with terrorists you still won't be able to make him buy a Paska.
For me, Easter Saturday always associated with planting potatoes. My grandfather and I would do it every Easter Saturday together. I don't know if we broke any church rules by doing it but it was our own tradition. In the afternoon we would usually put together an Easter basket and go to church to bless it. According to more strict Easter rules you are supposed to go to the Easter Vigil that starts at midnight and at the end of this service your Easter basket will be blessed by a priest with the Holy Water. With years the church has developed more liberal rules for people who don't go to all church events and created an alternative option that is very popular with many families. We always go to bless our basket on Saturday afternoon.
When I was a kid my parents took me to the Easter Vigil once. I will never forget that experience. It was special because of several reasons. As you know religion was forbidden in the Soviet Union but closer to the end of the soviet union existence many restrictions were ignored by people. One of them was connected to religion and churches. That night all the churches in my native Volodymyr were open and priests were serving the Vigil. I was sitting on my father's shoulders so that I could see the priest dressed in a festive gown and I was breathing in warm night air mixed with incenses. I was too little to understand that it was the smell of freedom in the air. There was a big crowd of people, all of them were happy and joyful, we met a lot of our acquaintances and some relatives. The best part was that we didn't go to one particular church but we made a real tour to a couple of them and everywhere we went there was this great spirit of joy.
What do we put into the Easter Basket? Well, in my family we put an Easter bread in the center, some specially prepared eggs that we call pysanka or krashanka (I plan to write about them a separate story), homemade sausage and salt. In other families, the variety of items can be different, but the Easter bread and eggs are a "must". When people come back from church this food can't be touched till morning unless you went to the night service and came back home early morning, because all family is supposed to get around the table and start their breakfast with the blessed food. Since all the time before Easter is a very strict lent, the breakfast is the first meal when the meat is back on the table. Before starting the meal the eldest person in the family says a short prayer asking God for health and an opportunity to meet the next Easter in the same circle of people. The blessed egg is the first item from the basket to be eaten due to its sacral meaning as a symbol of life and a role it had according to the Bible. The next meal of the day is usually a time when relatives and family friends pay each other a visit.
In Ukraine Easter is celebrated three days. The most fun day is Monday, it's called Wet Monday because it's an official tradition to pour, splash, sprinkle water on girls and young women (you can try it with grandmas too but I don't think they will be very happy about it). Real water battles take place on this day because in order to avoid gender discrimination girls strike back! One year my best friend and his cousin decided to "surprise" me with an unexpected visit to my home. They did the worst thing that could come to their heads - instead of water they used (for some unknown reason) perfume!!!! I couldn't get rid of that smell for the next couple of days.
During all Easter holiday period and till the Holy Trinity Ukrainians don't greet each other differently than "Christ is risen!" and the answer would be "Indeed, he is risen!"
Next Sunday after Easter, we have a so-called Antipascha or St. Thomas day, the day when we go to cemeteries and commemorate our deceased family members and relatives. We bring Easter bread and eggs to share with them and leave lit candles.
So that's my story for today! Hope you had a great Palm Sunday. Ukrainians will abide Palm or as you know now Willow Sunday next week because of the calendar shift that I've described in my Christmas story (https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html).
Have a great Sunday and behave yourself!
As always here are some photos of Easter bread and Easter basket that my best friend was so kind to lend for my story (and she makes the best Easter bread I have ever had in my life!!!)
Traditional Easter basket
Easter Bread
An embroidered serviette saying "Christ is risen" embroidered by my friend's mom
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