Easter (Velykden) is one of Ukraine’s most important religious Christian holidays. We don’t know anyone from our circle of friends and relatives who wouldn’t respect and cherish the beautiful tradition of the Easter festival. During the season of Lent, believers fast, pray, and purify their thoughts to become closer to God and understand his gift of eternal life. It is also this time of the year when we contemplate the awakening of the trees, plants, and flowers and enjoy the wonderful world around us.
Pussy-Willow Sunday (Palm Sunday)
According to Orthodox Christianity, preparation for Easter starts a week before the holiday, on Pussy-Willow Sunday (or Palm Sunday in Western Christianity). This name came from the ancient Slavic pagan tradition, in which the pussy-willow (“verba” in Ukrainian) was considered a sacred tree and was associated with universal harmony and the cult of ancestors. On that day, the greeting “I don’t beat you, the pussy-willow does” is quite common, and some can even beat you slightly with young willow twigs to symbolically dwarf evil spirits away and get you ready for the Holy Week.
The Holy Week
During the Holy Week that follows the Pussy-Willow Sunday, one should have only positive and kind thoughts. This time is filled with the special energy of purity and devotion. The fasting rules are stricter for those who obey the 40 days of the Great Lent. On Wednesday and Friday, also called Mourning Friday (Good Friday), meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products are forbidden. These days are very vegan. Thursday is called a “Clean” Thursday and is meant to be for cleaning up the house – washing, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing – and for taking a good bath.
Ukrainian Easter Eggs
On Monday and Tuesday, some already start preparing Easter eggs (“pysanky” and “krashenky”) and baking Paska, a sweet bread that’s an integral part of the Ukrainian culinary tradition. In Ukraine, like in many other cultures, eggs are associated with the beginning of a new life. The ritual of making “pysanka” goes back to ancient times and is a very time-consuming job. “Pysanky” are made by hollowing eggs and then decorating them using wax and dyes. Our ancestors paid attention to every detail of this ritual – the water, fire, wax, and paints – they should have been unused before and clean.
Nowadays, some Ukrainian craftswomen make embroidered pysanky, add beautiful designs and decorate their creations with beads and crystals. The art of making “pysanky” can differ from region to region; however, they all share the same symbolism – sacred crosses, stars, and the sun. We brought very nice wooden pysanky from Ukraine, but we still wanted to dedicate some time this year and prepare our own “pysanky.” We used markers to do that and enjoyed working with them. Such “pysanky” may not be as elaborate and sophisticated as the ones decorated by the wax-resistant technique. Still, these Easter Eggs look bright and joyous, and hopefully, they will also bring some good energy to the world.
“Krashenky” are another type of Ukrainian Easter Eggs. To make them, one can add the skins of orange or red onions to the boiling water and then boil white eggs in this water. If you intend to eat your Easter eggs, use natural dyes and explore different methods to add a simple ornament to the shell. For example, you can scratch the surface with a knife or scratch off simple figures with a paper towel soaked in vinegar or lemon juice. This type of Easter eggs has a different name – “dryapanky” (scratched eggs). Many European deli stores sell sleaves for Easter eggs with nice ornaments, they are ideal for those who have time constraints and can’t make their own pysanky or krashenky.
Ukrainian Easter Basket
On Saturday or Sunday, the sixth and seventh day of the “Holy Week, one would prepare a basket with Easter goodies to participate in the Easter Basket Blessing ceremony. The Ukrainian Easter basket includes Paska, a rich bread decorated with sugar glaze, chocolate or symbolic ornaments, pysanky and krashenky, a sausage or cooked meat, salt, chocolates, and some even put in there a bottle of red wine.
The blessing of the baskets is followed by a festive meal with family. Our moms used to bake many small paskas to share them with their friends and relatives. We have prepared two recipes of the Easter treats that you may want to prepare for the Easter dessert – Almond Easter Eggs.
Ukrainian Paska (Easter Bread)
The sweet Paska and the dyed Easter Eggs are the central elements of the Easter festival. There are a myriad of different recipes for Paska, and it takes a lot of time, understanding, and effort to prepare them. Not everyone is eager to do that and chooses to buy a commercial Easter bread, which is not quite the same as the homemade Paska. Also, the entire atmosphere of baking your Paska and putting the thoughts of love and kindness into this bread cannot be replaced with the trip to the bakery.
We share your two recipes – the Rum Easter Paska and the Sour Cream Paska. Good Paska should be sweet and a bit moist; perhaps this quality makes the homemade Paska so different from the commercial one. Paskas pair very well with sour red wine. You may not have anything else on Easter Sunday, but just the delicious Paska and a glass of fine red wine, and you will still have a great celebration meal.
The first recipe is for those who like to experiment, like us, and look for new and challenging recipes. We won’t hide from you that making it takes time and dedication. We have also understood that some parts of the recipe need to be modified as they may not always make sense. To garnish our Paska, we used our recipe for almond easter eggs that we have already shared with you. However, we cut the proportions this time, added egg whites, made the eggs small, and decorated them with a white sugar glaze.
The Second recipe is simpler and contains a good combination of egg yolks and whites, a small amount of butter, and sour cream. We also used this dough to make small chocolate paskas in the form of poppy seed boxes and chocolate braids for the paska.
Thank you!
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