Easter it is a time for the giving and receiving of presents which traditionally take the form of an Easter egg and hot cross buns. The Easter egg is by far the most popular emblem of Easter, but fluffy little chicks, baby rabbits and spring time flowers like daffodils, dangling catkins and the arum lily are also used to signify the Nature's awakening.
Nowadays Easter eggs are usually made of chocolate or marzipan or sugar. True Easter eggs are hard-boiled, dyed in bright colours, and sometimes elaborately decorated. Colouring and decorating the festival eggs seems to have been customary since time immemorial They can be dipped into a prepared dye or, more usually, boiled in it, or they may be boiled inside a covering of onion peel Natural dyes are often used for coloring today. They are obtained from flowers, leaves, mosses, bark, and wood-chips.
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In Ukraine, Easter is called Velikden (The Great Day). It has been celebrated over a long period of history and has many rich folk traditions that are no longer fully preserved. The last Sunday before Easter (Palm Sunday) is called Willow Sunday (Verbna nedilia). On this day pussy-willow branches are blessed in the church. The people tap one another with these branches, repeating the wish: ‘Be as tall as the willow, as healthy as the water, and as rich as the earth’.
The week before Easter, the Great Week (Holy Week), is called the White or Pure Week. During this time an effort is made to finish all fieldwork before Thursday, since from Thursday on work is forbidden. On the evening of ‘Pure’ (also called ‘Great’ or ‘Passion’ [Strasnyi]) Thursday, the passion (strasti) service is performed, after which the people return home with lighted candles. Maundy Thursday, called ‘the Eater of the dead’ in eastern Ukraine and Russia, is connected with the cult of the dead, who are believed to meet in the church on that night for the Divine Mass.
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For Mexico, Easter is a combination of Semana Santa (Holy Week - Palm Sunday to Easter Saturday) and Pascua (Resurrection Sunday until the following Saturday). For most Mexicans, this 2 week period is THE time of year for vacation (good time to not be on the highways - just stay put and enjoy the community of your choice during this holday season). |
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Great and Holy Thursday (Veli chetvortok). This is the day when the Easter red eggs are colored (vapsuvat). People take one of their red eggs to church for the service of the 12 Passion Gospels. After the service they bury the egg in the vineyard so that God keeps them from hailstorms (gradushka) and to give them a good harvest (beriket). People believe that a Holy Thursday egg would last that way all year. Great and Holy Friday (Veli petok). On Great and Holy Friday each family always buys a new pottery dish. The Easter markets are generally very busy on Good Friday. On March 25, Annunciation (sv. Blagoveshtenie), pumpkins are planted in Ohrid. They believe that pumpkins planted on that day will be very sweet. In Samokov on that day young ladies (malkite momi) bake for the first time sweet donuts (karvaycheta) with honey and sugar, as they do in Ohrid on Holy Thursday, and they call it (in Samokov) "sweet bread" ("sladko /blago/ pogache"). |
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