The most important holiday in Orthodoxy church calendar– this is Light Christ's Sunday, also called Easter. This day is the center of the entire tradition, history and philosophy of Orthodoxy. Symbolizes the victory of life over death in the broadest sense.
The date of celebration is calculated every year according to lunar calendar. There are Gregorian and Alexandrian Easter - complex astronomical systems for calculating the exact date. The Russian Orthodox Church adheres to the Alexandrian Paschal and uses the Julian calendar. Sometimes these systems give one date, then Catholics celebrate Easter together with Orthodox Christians. In all calendars and traditions, the date of Easter always falls on Sunday. This day of the week got its name from the holiday.
Name of the holiday
According to the four Gospels, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred on the Jewish holiday of Passover. On this day, the Jews celebrated the exodus from Egypt. The Old Testament says that the last “Egyptian execution”, which finally persuaded Pharaoh to decide to release the Jews, was the killing of all the firstborn by an angel. The angel did not touch only those who slain the lamb and smeared its blood on their doors. Thus, the blood of the lamb saved people from death. In the New Testament, Christ played the role of the Lamb who saves people.
Gradually, the Hebrew word “Pesach” was transformed into the Russian “Easter”. And people began to use the abbreviated name of the holiday more often instead of the full name.
History of Easter celebration
The first Christians believed that they were living at the end of time and expected the Second Coming every year. In memory of the sacrifice of Jesus, they began to celebrate the liturgy, remembering all the events - from the Last Supper to the Resurrection. Every Friday turned into a day of mourning, and Sunday into a day of joy. This bitterness and joy reached their climax on the day of Jewish Passover. This is how Easter was born in our modern understanding.
Easter in Rus'
The holiday came to our region along with Christianity. After Saint Prince Vladimir baptized Rus', Easter became the most important state event. Celebrations have since lasted for at least three days. Sometimes Russian princes, after successful campaigns or the birth of an heir, extended the celebration for a whole week.
Resurrection Day preceded Lent lasting at least forty days. Our ancestors used this period of time for spiritual cleansing. Pilgrimage to monasteries was very popular. Simple peasants set out on foot many kilometers to arrive at the monastery during Lent. There they confessed and celebrated Easter already cleansed.
Celebrations in New Times
At all times, right up to the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, Easter remained not only the main spring holiday, but also the most central event in the calendar. This was the case until the early twenties, when atheism became government policy. The authorities banned Easter liturgies, contrasting the Resurrection of Christ with its counterpart - Workers' Solidarity Day.
But already in the early nineties of the last century, all prohibitions were lifted and several red days in the spring again appeared on the calendar. As in the old days, Easter occupies a dominant place among all religious events. Even the head of state attends a service on this day in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
Folk customs and traditions
Since until Easter Christians long time They abstain from fast food; many Easter traditions are of a culinary nature.
Kulich or Paska
The main dish of the holiday is butter cake, which is now commonly called “paska”. Easter cakes are baked in advance and illuminated in the church the day before the holiday. Our ancestors called paska a completely different dish - cheese baba. To prepare it we used a lot chicken eggs and selected cottage cheese. Easter cakes were baked separately. The paska had the shape of a pyramid, which symbolized Mount Golgotha, where Jesus Christ was buried. Eating Easter symbolized Christ's victory over death.
It is customary to carry Easter cakes to church in wicker baskets, made of wicker or other material. In some parishes, paskas are blessed in the evening before Easter, in others - already on Sunday.
A separate tradition is decorating baskets. Now many Western attributes have come to us, previously unusual for the Orthodox tradition. These symbols include rabbits, yellow flowers and confectionery products made in the shape of a heart.
Painted eggs
Along with Easter cakes, it is customary to put eggs in the basket, painted bright red or covered with an intricate pattern. They are also intended to symbolize the victory of life over death. There is a version that this tradition is dictated by the shape of the egg - there is life under the dead shell.
After the Easter meal begins, the children take the eggs in their hands and try to break their friend's egg. This game was called “Christification”, since when the egg was struck, the Easter greeting was usually pronounced: “Christ is Risen.”
Church service - Easter Liturgy
Worship in Orthodox churches begins in the evening of the previous day and continues throughout the night. Although most believers come only in the morning to get to the main part of the action - the Holy Liturgy. In ancient times, it was customary to baptize catechumens on this day. Then, in order to become a Christian, it was necessary to prove one’s piety over a long period. Such candidates were called catechumens and were not allowed to be present in the church during the celebration of the sacraments.
During Lent, priests wear either passion vestments in red or mourning vestments in purple. In such clothes they begin the Easter service. But as soon as the joyful “Christ is Risen” sounds, they put on their most beautiful outfits, sewn from white fabric with an abundance of gold.
Immediately after the end of the festive liturgy, festivities begin. On this day it is customary to wear best clothes and do not restrain yourself in expressions of joy. Young guys explode crackers and set off fireworks, large fairs open where not only goods are sold, but also various competitions are held. For example, a pillar is placed in the main square, with a valuable object tied to the top. To win the competition, you need to reach the top of the pillar and remove this item, receiving it as a prize.
From time immemorial, artisans have used folk festivals to show off their best products. For example, on this day bakers baked a gigantic Easter cake right on the square and divided it among everyone.
The Sunday of Christ was also considered an excellent occasion for charity. On this day, the imperial couple could visit a shelter for orphans or the poor. Poor people were received in the houses of rich people or food was taken out to them on the street.
In the evening, towards the end of the festivities, it is customary to light the Easter fire. A happy bonfire was laid out in the main square of the village big size and set it on fire at nightfall. Now, for obvious reasons, this tradition has been forgotten. Although in some villages bonfires are lit, not in the main square, but near the church.
Easter in Rus'
In Rus', Holy Week and Easter merged with the ancient Slavic multi-day spring holiday.
The main content of the spring holiday of the Slavs was the honoring of the spirits of ancestors and sacrifice to field and plant deities. Cleansing magical rituals, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, were supposed to save people, fields, and livestock from evil spirits, neutralize it. People thought that sending them would ensure a good harvest of grain, healthy offspring of livestock, and well-being in families.
Like all other ancient Slavic holidays, the spring festival was of a communal nature. The community gathered for the holiday first decided on the most important economic issues, and then a general feast and games began.
Remnants of the ancient Slavic rituals of the spring festival and beliefs associated with it have been preserved in large numbers to this day in the rituals and customs of the Easter holiday. Their original meaning was forgotten; the Orthodox Church tried to give them its own interpretation and explanation.
Let's take, for example, the traditional purely Easter holiday dishes: colored eggs, Easter cakes, cottage cheese Easter. Or the festive bell ringing that lasts a whole week for Easter. The Orthodox Church gave its own religious interpretation to all these customs and traditions. The painted egg, according to her teaching, is a symbol of the resurrection of Christ. To substantiate this interpretation, there is a story about how the “holy harlot” Mary Magdalene publicly testified to her Christianity at Easter in the Roman amphitheater, presenting Emperor Tiberius with a red egg with the words: “Christ is risen!” The festive ringing of bells meant, according to the assurance of Orthodox churchmen, joy on the occasion of the victory of “life over death,” etc., etc.
Meanwhile, in reality, all these traditions had nothing in common with their theological interpretation.
As we have already said, Easter originated in the south? countries. Spring comes there much earlier than in Rus', and it was celebrated at the beginning of the grain harvest. Naturally, the holiday was hearty and plentiful.
Moved far to the north, Easter in Rus' fell on early spring. The first products that appeared on the farms of Slavic farmers in early spring were dairy products and eggs. Then it became possible to create some supplies of these products for the festival. To all this we must add that after a difficult, often half-starved winter, cottage cheese and eggs were delicious dishes and therefore occupied a prominent place among holiday dishes.
A number of religious ideas were associated with the egg, and a few special words need to be said about it. In the eyes of the ancient Slavs, the egg, with its ability to turn into a bird, was full of mysterious meaning. People saw this act as confirmation of their belief in the magical ability of living beings to reincarnate. The mysterious power contained in the egg was credited with the ability to transfer to everything it touched.
The community holiday feast was at the same time a treat - a sacrifice to spirits and deities. From time immemorial, blood was considered the most favorite food of spirits, and in order to make eggs most pleasing to spirits, they were smeared with blood. Later, instead of blood, eggs began to be painted with red paint, and even later - simply painted in some bright color.
The famous Easter custom of rolling eggs was associated with the ancient Slavs' belief in demons. People believed that by rolling eggs, they could make evil spirits dance, roll, and somersault, which supposedly caused them terrible suffering. If you hit the eggs against each other, you can make the spirits hit their foreheads. Once upon a time, people believed that this was the way to fight evil spirits and annoy them.
According to ancient beliefs, evil spirits, as inhabitants of the underworld, constantly live in the silence of the grave and are very afraid of screaming, noise, shooting, clanging, and ringing. And when, with the victory of Christianity in Rus', church bells were rung for a whole week at Easter, people believed that this ringing drove away evil spirits.
According to Slavic beliefs, fire played a major role in exorcism. Therefore, out of fear of demons, believers held burning candles in their hands during the service on Easter Thursday. In order to expel evil spirits from the house and then not let them back in, before Easter they swept out homes, and then burned crosses on the ceilings and doors with the fire of a burning candle brought from the church.
The preparation of Easter cakes - specially shaped Easter bread - is associated with the belief in the magical properties of ritually blessed food. As we have already said, in southern countries the Easter holiday coincided with the first grain harvest. Bread from the flour of the new harvest was baked unleavened; it could not be mixed with the leaven from old bread. New bread was eaten only after consecration, and such bread supposedly possessed miraculous power. It was false to eat it without fear of evil spirits. And in order not to confuse the new bread with the old one, it was given a special shape. Thus, Easter cake was for believers bread, pure from evil spirits and containing the “holy” power of plant spirits.
Such an Easter dish as cottage cheese Easter was originally given the most different shape. But gradually, under the influence of the cult of the dead, they began to give it first the shape of a burial mound, and later the appearance of a quadrangular pyramidal tombstone. On the walls of Easter cottage cheese, Christians squeezed out the letters “X” and “B”, i.e. “Christ is risen!”
The traditional Passover ham has replaced the Jewish Passover lamb and the Christian lamb. Moreover, it could be the ham of either a wild boar or a home-fed piglet.
And finally, a few words should be said about the traditional Easter kissing, or the making of Christ.
On the one hand, this is a relic of the ritual of joyful meeting of community members when they arrive warm days converged on their own spring holiday, spending a long and difficult winter in small groups, hiding from the cold. On the other hand, this ritual has its roots in even deeper antiquity. Primitive people believed that breathing is the essence of the soul. And Christians, kissing relics, icons, and crosses at Easter, believed that in this way the Magic power these items. By Christing, the believers sought in this way to exchange the spirit, the mysterious power that allegedly entered them during the Easter service and kissing various sacred relics.
This is the origin and true meaning of some Easter rites and customs, which the Orthodox Church is trying to give a different interpretation.
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Easter, or the Bright Resurrection of Christ, is the main Orthodox holiday. In Rus', both this day and the entire subsequent week were spent cheerfully: they prepared traditional Easter dishes - Easter cakes, Easter cottage cheese - painted eggs, danced in circles, swung on swings, and went around houses with congratulations.
We remember how Easter was celebrated in the old days.
Games
The celebration of the Holy Resurrection of Christ included not only a solemn service in the church, but also public festivities. After many days of fasting and refusal of entertainment, the celebration took place widely - with round dances, games, and songs. Easter in Rus' was celebrated from 3 to 7 days, and in some regions - even until Trinity (celebrated 50 days after Easter).
A favorite Easter pastime was egg rolling, or “rolling.” Each region has its own rules of the game. For example, in the Pskov region a player rolled painted egg on an inclined wooden plank or a steep hill and tried to knock down other eggs standing below. If the participant achieved the goal, then he took the beaten egg for himself and continued the game. If he missed, the next one entered the game, and the unsuccessfully rolled egg remained. Wooden, skillfully painted eggs were often used; sometimes entire sets of such eggs were made especially for this entertainment. Rolling ball is still played in some regions.
Also at Easter they put up carousels and large swings; in the Pskov region they were called “zybki”. It was believed that the future harvest depended on swinging on them. That is why they swayed most often from Easter to Trinity, just during the active growth of wheat. There was also a belief that swings helped to find a husband or wife faster. In the Russian villages of the Udmurt Republic, this belief was preserved in Easter songs and ditties that were sung while swinging: “Red egg! / Tell the groom. / If you don’t say it - / We’ll swing you,” “There’s a swing on the mountain, / I’ll go swing. / Today I’ll take the summer off, / I’ll get married in the winter,” “Let’s get married, let’s get married, / I’ll get married to myself.”
Swing song “Red Egg” performed by D.P. Dubovtseva and E.M. Barmina from the city of Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic
Among the popular ones was a game known as “the eagle”, “the toss”. It was most often played for money. The simplest way to play: one of the participants tossed a coin, and when it fell to the ground, the second had to guess without looking which side it fell up. The obverse (heads) always meant a win, the reverse (tails) a loss. That is why the game got its name - “in the eagle”. In some villages it has survived to this day, for example in the village of Kadyshevo, Ulyanovsk region.
Songs
Before the revolution, Easter songs were passed down from generation to generation. With the advent of Soviet power, this tradition almost disappeared in families, but folk ensembles at clubs often knew and sang them.
The main Easter hymn - the troparion “Christ is risen from the dead” - was performed during the church service. But in some villages it sounded not only in the temple. For example, in the Smolensk region they performed their own folk version of the troparion. It was called “crying out Christ.” The women who sang it did not spare their voices. “They shouted Christ” in any situation - at work, on the street, during festivities and festive feasts.
In some regions, words from themselves were added to the canonical text of the troparion. They asked God for the main things: health, prosperity, a good harvest. Such songs were sung in the Bezhetsky district of the Tver region. Here, for a long time, the tradition of walking around the village with an icon of the Mother of God on Easter was preserved - the villagers believed that this was how they protected themselves from all sorts of troubles.
In the Pskov region, girls and women sang songs on the first day of Easter, and in the Cossack village of Yaminsky, Volgograd region, wide festivities began later - on the first Sunday after Easter (Krasnaya Gorka), and ended on Trinity. Celebrations here usually began in the afternoon. The Cossacks gathered together on two opposite sides of the farm, set tables and sang songs - “lyuleiki” - as they were called because of the chorus “oh, lyuli, lyuli”. Then we moved to the center of the farm and set a common table on the street.
Dances and round dances
With the end of Lent, the ban on dancing was lifted. An integral part of the Easter festivities were round dances performed to special songs. In the village of Stropitsy, Kursk region, tanks were performed - special round dances of two types: circular and longitudinal. The circles were like a theatrical performance. The dancers sang story songs and played different roles in them. Longitudinal tanks operated on the principle of a stream. These dances were performed only once a year, on Krasnaya Gorka.
Karagod song “Give up, nanny, work” performed by the folk ensemble “Peasant” from the village of Russkaya Trostyanka, Ostrogozhsky district, Voronezh region
Volochebnichki were dragging themselves, performed by U.V. and E.V. Pozdnyakov from the village of Boriskovo, Nevelsky district, Pskov region
In the Kostroma region, on the first Sunday after Easter, newlyweds walked around the yards. This ritual was called “Vyunets”. In the morning, children called out to the newly-made spouses under the windows and sang the song “Young Young Lady.” Boys and girls came to greet the newlyweds in the middle of the day, and adults came in the afternoon. The louse walkers first sang on the porch, then they were invited into the house and treated to food at the table.
The Kukmor Udmurts also had a custom that was reminiscent of traditional Russian circumvention rituals. Young girls and boys riding on festively decorated horses rode into each yard and sang the call “Hurray!” to the owners, calling them out into the street. Later, everyone sat down and the guests were treated to festive food.
In the old days, it was customary for housewives to stay at home on the first day of Easter, and men to go to their loved ones and acquaintances with congratulations.
The tables had been set all day and there were already fast (non-lenten) dishes on them.
The Easter table was usually decorated mainly with cold dishes: baked lamb, fried veal, pork hams.
It was not customary to serve fish on this day.
An obligatory decoration of the table was the Easter lamb, either sugar on Easter cake, or made from butter at Easter (there were special lamb molds for baking and for butter).
Easter cakes and Easter cakes were also decorated with paper flowers, and colored eggs were placed on freshly sprouted oats, wheat or specially grown watercress.
On Bright Week, they were sure to visit all relatives and good friends, paying special respect to the elderly.
Many of these and other traditions are a thing of the past. But there are also families where Easter celebration rituals are passed down from generation to generation. And while they exist, we can hope that our children and grandchildren will also be able to paint Easter eggs.
Easter is called the feast of feasts, the celebration of celebrations. It is not for nothing that our ancestors surrounded this holiday with special customs that still live in everyday life. Even non-believers, according to ancient Russian tradition, paint eggs and bake Easter cakes on this day.
In ancient times, wealthy owners served 48 different dishes for Easter, according to the number of days of the expired fast.
Easter cakes and cottage cheese cakes were always decorated with homemade flowers, symbolizing the awakening of nature and the flowering of spirituality.
Making flowers for the holiday, like painting eggs, was extremely exciting activity. Both adults and children cut out flowers and twigs from bright colored paper and decorated their tables, houses, icons and furniture with them.
Ritual Easter dishes have always been associated with ritual symbolism of the harvest. The remains of pies, eggs and other dishes consecrated in the church could not be thrown away; they were buried in the field so that the soil would be fertile and produce a lot of harvest this year.
One Easter egg was necessarily kept until sowing; it was taken with them when they went to sow for the first time and eaten in the field so that the harvest would be rich.
Easter is a holiday of resurrection, rebirth, and it is customary to place sprouted grain (wheat, barley or other) on the table, since the tender greenery that comes from a dry seed symbolizes dying and returning to life again.
Reviving old custom Easter celebrations, we return to our roots, and here we should remember what place was given to the traditions of the table. After the long seven-week Lent preceding the holiday, each housewife tried to set the table with special solemnity. I. have never eaten so much throughout the whole year in Rus' as on Holy Week.
The Easter table was always rich: in addition to the dishes listed, the table was served with a variety of vegetable appetizers, stewed chicken giblets, fish roe and milk dishes, herring, jellied fish, jelly and jellied meat, beef kidney kalya with pickles, liver cauliflower, nanny - stewed buckwheat porridge with lamb meat, roast with mushrooms prepared for future use in the summer, beef with turnips, boiled pork in hay with beer, duck or goose in honey or fried with juniper branches. The drinks were also varied: beer, homemade liqueurs, liqueurs and wines, jelly and sbitny.
The basis of the meal these days was meat - after six weeks of abstinence, everyone managed to miss it: baked ham, ham or lamb; stuffed ducks, turkeys and geese; suckling pigs and homemade sausage; and also cheeses, bacon and lard, huge whole sturgeons...
Here, for example, is the menu for the Romanov family's Easter dinner in 1903: “Easter. Easter cakes. Eggs. Sturgeon. Beluga. Salmon. Walleyes. Stellate sturgeon. Pheasants. Partridges. Black grouse. Ryabtsy. Ducks. Lambs. Ham. Languages. Beef on the bone. Yaroslavl veal. There are different pies."
The Russian Easter table has always been not only generous, but also very beautiful.
Even in the poorest families, candles were always placed on it, baskets with fresh sprouted wheat or oats, Easter cakes and Easter cakes were decorated with flowers - they were made from bright scraps of fabric and colored paper, which were collected especially for this throughout the year.
However, our Easter customs are associated not only with food. Russian people have always loved various pastimes: at late Easter in the villages they rolled eggs on the grass, and at early Easter they played “cue ball”: they fought with the noses of the eggs; whoever has the strongest is lucky.
Traditional Easter dishes: Easter cakes, Easter cakes, women, painted eggs. Previously, eggs were painted not only for Easter, but also for Trinity. green color. And Easter cakes and Easter cakes in our time, as before, are baked once a year - on Easter.
Easter gingerbread cookies differed from ordinary ones in that they had the outlines of bunnies, cockerels, doves, and larks.
Many dishes were prepared for the festive table. They baked lamb and ham, fried veal. They were served only cold, since one of the main rules of the Easter table was the exclusion of hot dishes.
According to ancient tradition, colored eggs were placed on fresh sprouted greens of oats, wheat, and sometimes on soft green tiny leaves of watercress, which were specially sprouted in advance for the holiday.
Candles, lamps, chandeliers, and lamps were lit in the houses. Easter was considered family holiday, so around festive table the closest people gathered.
And throughout Bright Week, friends and acquaintances came to the house and were treated to all kinds of dishes.
In our time, the celebration of Easter begins with the Easter service, which begins at night. You should not take baskets of food with you to the Easter service; this can be done the day before on Saturday or on the morning of Easter.
Bless food in church, light a candle and pray. After returning from church, the whole family sits down to breakfast. There should be consecrated food on the table, which is usually brought to church: Easter cakes, Easter cakes, painted eggs, sausage, cheese, lard, honey, sweets, smoked meat. Father will bless a bottle of wine, but don’t bring vodka or cognac to church. For the blessing of food, people stand in a circle near the church, and the priest blesses everything with holy water. The assistant priest collects voluntary donations. In Rus', it was customary to collect money on this day to ransom debtors from prison. It was believed that all the good deeds that you do in favor of other people, especially those who are deprived of fate, help remove sin from your soul.
The Easter table should be plentiful and very beautiful, distinguished by festive splendor. Traditionally, a pig or lamb was baked for this day. Lamb should be on the table at least in the form of a confectionery product. It is easy to bake from shortcrust pastry. The lamb is a symbol of the sacrificial death of Christ for the atonement of human sins. The traditional Easter table is decorated with ham, boiled pork, jelly, duck (goose) with apples, and pies. On this day they eat everything that is meaty, so all the dishes are hearty and delicious. The central place on the table is occupied by Easter cake. Place the paints in a visible place, not necessarily on the table. They will look original if you put them on a dish with sprouted green sprouts from wheat, oats or watercress, and place Easter souvenirs around them - birds, bunnies, decorative eggs and candles, wreaths and small beads.
On Easter you need to visit and receive guests in your home. You can spend the holiday only with your family, but do not forget that you cannot work on this day, as on all Sundays. Six days to work, and on the seventh to rest - this is one of God's commandments. Relax, play with your children, or do something that brings you pleasure. You need to celebrate Easter with your soul, if you want to organize a trip to nature, with kebabs and baked potatoes, please.
The celebration of Easter lasts forty days - on the fortieth day Jesus Christ ascended to heaven to his Father, and on this day we celebrate the Ascension. In the first week after Easter, it is customary to receive guests and give Easter cakes and Easter cakes. The next Sunday after Easter is the farewell, when you need to remember the dead and visit their graves.
IN Easter holidays It is not customary to forget about children. There are a variety of games during which parents introduce their children to family traditions celebrating this bright holiday.
A game with Easter eggs - rolling colored eggs: everyone from among the guests and the hosts themselves take part in it. Before the game, each player is given one Easter egg, with which he takes part in this game. Each player drops an egg into a specially prepared chute and rolls it along it. The goal of this game is to keep the egg intact for as long as possible and roll it as far as possible. Whoever breaks the egg is immediately eliminated from the game, and the winner takes all the eggs for himself.
Arrange a fun game for the youngest guests present: beating eggs.
Beating eggs is a familiar and favorite game of our childhood. Divide children of approximately the same age into two teams of two children. Explain to the children the principle of the game: fight with Easter eggs until one participant’s egg shell breaks. The winner is the one who was able to keep the egg intact.
Today, families are reviving interest in holidays and their traditions. There are many holidays in Russia. Ancient holidays were associated with the agricultural folk calendar. They were based on pagan ideas about the structure of the world.
After the adoption of Christianity in Rus' at the end of the 10th century. The holidays of the Orthodox Church received popular recognition. The time of Easter celebration in Rus' coincided with the spring pagan Slavic holidays. To this day, ancient Slavic rituals and customs have been preserved in the celebration of Easter. On the eve of the holiday, it is customary to prepare traditional Easter dishes: Easter cakes, colored eggs, Easter cottage cheese. The ancient Slavs found magic and mysterious power in the ability of an egg to transform into a living creature - a bird. Eggs coated in blood served as sacrifices to the spirits. Over time, eggs began to be painted with red paint. Nowadays, different colors and stickers with drawings and patterns are used to color eggs.
The big one is coming religious holiday Christ's Sunday. Christian Easter is celebrated after the Jewish Passover, on the eve of which, after a festive supper, Christ was betrayed by the Apostle Judas Iscariot and crucified on the first day of the holiday. The resurrection occurred on the night from Saturday to Sunday. This Sunday is called Christ's Sunday.
Easter is preceded by Lent, a time of strict abstinence. Christians banned weddings, celebrations, games, and gatherings. During Lent, strict dietary restrictions were observed; it was forbidden to consume meat, milk, eggs, and fish. Breaking the fast was considered a great sin. It was allowed to eat rye bread, potatoes, turnips, pickles, jelly, cabbage soup and porridge with vegetable oil.
The believers ate only twice a day, and last week Lent, Holy Week - once. IN Holy Week They ate only bread and water.
During the first and last weeks of Lent, it was customary to go to confession.
Holy Week
Every day of the week was called Passionate. From terrible Monday to Maundy Thursday they washed, washed the hut, whitewashed the stove, and tidied up the yard. On Maundy Thursday we washed ourselves in the bathhouse.
From Thursday to Saturday, believers, in memory of the torment of Christ, performed folk cleansing rites and visited churches. On Holy Saturday, Easter treats were blessed in churches.
On the night from Saturday to Sunday, an Easter service was held with a procession of the cross, dedicated to the event of the Gospel - the Resurrection of Christ. After the service, the parishioners celebrated Christ - they kissed three times with the words: “Christ is Risen!”, “Truly He is Risen!” After the 40-day Lent, everyone went home for the Easter morning meal. We started the meal with an egg. The owner of the house cleaned and distributed a piece of the first Easter egg to all family members, dividing Easter and Easter cake equally.
The festive Easter week began with festivities, games, round dances, and fairs. They call her Light, Red, Joyful. Harmonists played harmonicas, girls and boys danced, sang songs, danced in circles, and rode on swings.
On the first day of Easter, the votive walk began. According to tradition, married men and young boys went around their neighbors’ houses, singing volcanic songs.
The name “volochebniki” comes from the word “to drag” meaning “to wander.” He led the whole process, started songs and received gifts from the owners “boss”. The chorus was sung by the “pick-ups”.
Children also walked around houses separately from adults. The owners treated the children to colored eggs, sweets, and pies. Walking tours are one of the types of entertainment. People believed that the visit of the magicians would bring prosperity to the family and did not skimp on gifts.
During Easter week, it was customary to visit relatives for a festive feast.
Throughout Easter week, men and boys played games with Easter eggs. The whole village came to watch the Easter competitions.
A participant in the game launched a colored egg down a steep hill, at the foot of which the other participants placed one egg in a semicircle. The player's task is to knock down as many eggs as possible. If successful, the player took the beaten egg for himself and continued the game. If the first player missed, the second one entered the game. The winner was the player who collected the most eggs.
Curd Easter
To prepare Easter you need to take cottage cheese (700 grams), butter, sour cream (a glass), sugar, boiled egg yolks (3-5) and raisins (100 grams). Butter, sour cream, sugar and raisins are added to the cottage cheese to taste. All this is ground to a homogeneous mass and placed in a colander in a gauze bag under pressure. After all the liquid has drained out, turn the Easter over and place it on a plate. Bon appetit!
Break eggs into a dish, add sugar and add half a liter of hot boiled milk. Mix all this until foam is obtained. Now pour out the remaining milk. Separately, pour yeast and a pinch of sugar into warm water to rise. Yeast is added when the mixed milk becomes warm. Stir salt, vanillin and flour, add fat - margarine and vegetable oil, raisins. Margarine can be replaced with half a glass of vegetable oil, then use a glass of butter for the dough.
Stir the dough into a loose mixture so that it comes away from your hands. After three rises and grinds, place the dough into the molds. The cake is baked for 40 minutes. It is necessary to check its readiness more often.
After cooling, the cake is covered with glaze. For the glaze, mix 1 cup of sugar and the white of a raw egg until smooth.
Dear reader! I really hope that my article will be of interest to someone. What features of Easter in Rus' do you know?
