Easter

Easter in Ukraine

Easter is the most important holiday of the year.

      Easter egg is called pysanka. The origin of the word pysanka comes from the Ukrainian verb pysaty, which means to write or to paint. Symbols and ornaments are painted on an egg with melted beeswax.

The symbol of an egg is present in many ancient cultures of the world. Easter eggs can be made of stone, metal or wood and decorated with precious stones.

Many rituals are associated with pysankas. The patterns that pysankas are decorated with contain encoded wishes for happiness, a rich harvest, health and wealth. They are presented to people as a sign of friendship and are also used by girls to send love messages to young men.

In the Ukrainian town of Kolomyya, there is a pysanka museum, the only museum of this kind in Ukraine. Its collection contains more than 10,000 pysankas from every region of Ukraine as well as from four foreign countries.

  Preparation for Easter starts seven weeks ahead of time with the advent of Lent.

Believers don't eat meat and animal products.

Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, is known in Ukraine as Willow Sunday.

People bring home willow branches which have been blessed in church. They tap each other with blessed willows and say “Be as healthy as the Willow and as rich as the Earth; the willow is hitting, I’m not hitting, a week from today, it will be Easter.”

This week is dedicated to preparing for Easter.

The Thursday before Easter is called Clean Thursday.

According to Ukrainian tradition one should bathe before sunrise on this day.

The house must be clean too.

Good Friday is the day that the women of the family bake "paska", Ukrainian Easter bread.

On Saturday children dye Easter eggs to add to the Easter basket which will be blessed in church. Other foods such as cheese, butter, salt, pork fat, horse radish, pysanky (Ukrainian Easter egg), ham, sausages, as well as various seeds people also bring to church for the blessing.

In the evening people go to church for the Easter mass, which lasts all night.

The priest in the church consecrates all the food: many people believe that the Easter eggs possess magic power and can protect from evil, thunder or fire and have healing powers.

In the morning after the end of the serv­ice, the people greet each other with the words: "Christ has risen!" and return home for breakfast.

The first Easter meal begins with an Easter egg. The head of the family cuts it into small pieces and gives them to each member of the family with the words "Khrystos voskres" ("Christ has risen").

Easter Sunday is a day of singing songs and eating. Young girls dance and sing about nature and spring. People exchange pysanky.

There are many other interesting cus­toms and traditions in Ukraine, too.