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Many people observe Easter traditions, paint eggs and bake cakes, bless them in church, but do not think about where the traditions of Easter dishes and rituals come from.
Prepare for this bright holiday carefully and in advance. They put things in order in the house, wash the windows, get rid of unnecessary things, and also collect juniper branches by Maundy Thursday – the smoke from burnt branches protects households from diseases.
On Maundy Thursday, they begin to prepare for the feast – they paint eggs, knead the dough for baking cakes, so that on Friday and Saturday they completely devote themselves to the service and prayers. It is also believed that on Maundy Thursday, attention should be paid to personal hygiene and the sacrament in the church.
See also: What they put in the Easter basket
The blessing of cakes and eggs takes place on Sunday, after the end of Easter services in churches, but in large cities, due to the large number of people who want to bless food, they begin on Saturday.
The Easter service takes place very solemnly, those who wish can take part in the procession and ring the bells, and at the end of the service the believers rejoice and greet each other with kisses. From this moment you can begin the Easter feast, which lasts 40 days after Easter.
How did the Easter cake appear?
Jesus Christ, according to legend, after the Resurrection came to the apostles for a meal, where bread was always waiting for him in the center of the table. This is how the tradition arose in the church to leave bread on a separate table (“artos” in Greek). At the end of the night Easter liturgy, artos is necessarily consecrated and then, after the blessing on Saturday, it is distributed to believers in the church. And since the family is considered a small Church, a custom has appeared in every house to put its own artos – a tall buttery cylindrical bread.
What is Easter
This dish is a symbol of the Holy Sepulcher and it is prepared in the form of a truncated pyramid. Easter ingredients are cottage cheese, sour cream and dried fruits. Also, Easter is considered a symbol of fun and paradise life.
How the tradition of painting eggs for Easter came about
The egg has long been considered a symbol of new life, rebirth, fertility. And the custom of exchanging colored eggs, regardless of religion, was introduced by Emperor Mark Abelius. On his birthday, one of the mother’s chickens laid an egg at a red dot, this was considered a sign of the birth of a new emperor, and the celebration of the moment was embodied in the tradition of exchanging colored eggs as a congratulation.
Orthodox Christians paint their eggs red, and there is more than one explanation for this. Many believe that this color symbolizes the blood of Christ shed for our sins.
One of the legends says that after the death of Christ, a feast of the Jews took place, at which one of the guests suggested that he be resurrected on the third day. The owner of the house objected and said that this would be possible if the chicken served on the table came to life and the eggs turned red. And so it happened in front of the astonished audience.
A similar legend tells about Mary Magdalene, who came to the Roman emperor Tiberius with the news of the resurrection of Christ and brought an egg as a gift. The emperor doubted the news and said that just as eggs do not turn red, the dead do not rise. Immediately, the egg turned red.
A common version of the appearance of colored eggs says that during Lent, a large number of uneaten eggs accumulated, and in order to preserve them for as long as possible, they were boiled and painted with onion skins, which gave the eggs a red color. This method helped not to confuse already boiled eggs with raw ones. And during the beginning of the Easter feast, these eggs were tried to be among the first.
Traditional food for Easter
After the Easter service, you can eat everything that was forbidden during the fast. The meal should be started with a blessed cake and eggs, red wine is allowed.
In addition to Easter cake, Easter and eggs, another dish symbolizing the sacrificial death of Christ, which is desirable to have on the festive table, is a fried lamb.
For this bright holiday, a generous table of 48 dishes is being prepared – according to the number of fasting days preceding Easter. Particular attention is paid to meat dishes – ham, hams are baked, poultry is stuffed, and homemade sausage is prepared. All dishes are prepared in advance and placed on the table on the eve of the service so that the celebration can begin immediately afterwards. Since traditionally on this and the following days it is customary to go to visit without an invitation, such dishes help out the owners in case of an unexpected feast.
Happy Easter!