This year in Ukraine Easter is celebrated on the 15th of April. This holiday has very old traditions and is really loved by people. Easter festivals is a great opportunity to visit your family and friend, enjoy tasty traditional food and have some good time.

The holiday is basically religious, but in Slavic traditions it also has pagan origins. Easter is a day to celebrate the resurrection of nature from winter and its come back to life. In religious tradition it is a holiday to commemorate Jesus and his resurrection. It is very happy and joyful holiday, really family one.

Couple of days before this day families are preparing to celebrations. People are sweeping up, buying various products to make traditional foods, cooking, buy candles and paint Easter eggs. On Easter people are usually eating traditional Ukrainian food like home-made sausages, home piroshky (patties), kulich (Easter cake), jerked beef and of course hard-boiled eggs.
At the evening before the Easter people are preparing food basket, usually basket is a special-day one, beautifully painted or decorated. To this basket they put a little bit of everything they’ve cooked for the holiday. Also they add some fruit like apples and veggies like cucumber and tomato. Another thing that people sometimes put to their basket is small bottle of vodka, but it depends on a family. Still compulsive things to put are kulich and painted eggs.

On this day people try to go to bed a bit earlier, as they have to wake up at about 4 o’clock. This evening is very festive at every home, as almost from every point you can hear bell-ringing and it lasts for all night. It creates really special and pleasant atmosphere. Then people are getting up at 4 a.m. or earlier if they want to spend some more time at church. Usually people go to church with all of their family, but without small children as it is hard for them to wake up so early. But other children admire this type of festivities and they are going for blessing and enjoy it very much.
When people come to church they do not actually have to go into it, as it is full of people and visitors with their baskets are just standing on both sides of the street where church is situated. Some people are just standing, other walk through the row of people, greeting their friends and neighbors. Also children admire to watch other people’s kuliches, as everybody put their baskets at the ground so that priest could bless it with holy water. The biggest attraction for children are gypsy’s Easter cakes, as they usually make it as big as bucket, which is like 4 times bigger than normal one.

When the blessing is starting it’s already uprising. The priest is going through the street with helper who is brining a bucket with holy water. The priest is bedroping people and their food with the water and wishes them good luck and God’s help. After this people are hurrying home to eat their food. Traditionally it is said that you should hurry home after blessing because the faster you come home, the faster your harvest will be reaped. It is not very topical for cities, but still people are hurrying home.
When they come home, people woke up those of their relatives who didn’t go to church (usually it’s very old members of the family and children) and treat them with blessed food. On this day people are playing game with eggs: you and your friend should smash each other’s Easter egg and the one whose egg was smashed looses the game.

Another feature of this day is that people greet each other with words: “Christ is risen” and to this you must answer “Indeed risen”.

Written by Kateryna Martynenko