If you’re spending 15th of April 2012 in Ukraine, you should definitely find a nice way to celebrate it.

Even if you’re not an orthodox Christian or if you’re atheist or religiously indifferent person. Easter and other traditional holidays is a great opportunity to learn interesting ceremonies of the country, to try new and tasty food and to meet new people. So, where to start?

1.

Visit your friends and their families at the country

The best way for you to spend Easter in traditional way is to spend it together with your friends and their families. Especially it will be amusing if family is living in the country and not in a big city. Also, you will experience more exciting ceremonies and traditions if there are elderly people in a family, as they usually the ones who keep traditions the most. So, the best way to spend Easter is to visit your friends in a village. There you’ll be able to try tasty home-made kulich and a lot of other delicious foods. Another thing is that you’ll be able to have some time at the open air, you may go for a walk to the wood, or to the river, or even have a picnic with your friends. From elderly people you may be able to hear old traditional songs dedicated to the holiday. Also this way you will meet some new people, which may tell you a lot of interesting things about the holiday and about traditional Ukrainian culture.
2.

Go to church

While visiting at the village, you can go to the church with everybody and experience festive ceremony of Orthodox Church. It will be quite an entertaining and pleasant thing to see and take part in even if you’re not into religion at all. Villages are known for keeping traditions very well, especially this is true for western regions of Ukraine. So it would be perfect if your friends lived in the west of the country, but really any country will do. You’ll enjoy calm and festive atmosphere of this holiday and you’ll remember your Ester holidays for all your life. If you don’t have any friends to go to, you still can visit the church on your own, even in a city. Perhaps impressions will be less vivid, as ceremonies in city are usually not so magnific, but still those are amazing emotions to experience. If you’re spending your Easter in Kiev, the best thing you can do is to go to Kiev Pechersk Lavra and enjoy Easter vigil there. It will last from 11 p.m. on the 14th of April till 3 a.m. on the 15th of April. Also it is announced that huge kulich will be made holy at the Lavra and then it will be cut into pieces and everyone will get a part of it.
3.

Paint an Easter egg

If you don’t have any mood for Easter you can create one by painting an Easter egg with your own hands. If you’d like to create some elaborate pattern but don’t want to eat that egg afterwards, you may buy a wooden egg on a stick. They are sold for 7-15 grivnas depending on a size and are perfect for children and adults as well. With an egg like that you won’t be bored on Easter, as creating some festive patterns is quite amusing thing to do.
4.

Buy some traditional Easter food and go to a picnic

It would be great to spend Easter day outdoors, especially in a wood, where you can fix a fire and maybe have a little shish-kebab. Also, Easter is a perfect time for eating and having food outdoors will be even more enjoyable. The only thing that may be not so good – on this day great number of people are going to wood for a picnic, so if you’re going to have yours in city boundaries it might be rather hard to find free place without going too far into woods. Also you might encounter some drunken people there, which can be really terrifying. Don’t be afraid, just bear it in mind. For that matter it’s better to go to a picnic with some men in your company.
Written by Kateryna Martynenko