The Easter holidays bring not only the spring, but also a series of customs and traditions that most of the times comply with the church dogma. Easter, being preceded by Lent, Passion Week, makes the church traditions to combine with the popular ones, IPN quoted ethnologist Andrei Prohin as saying.
At the start of Passion Week, the people start to prepare the house, yard and orchard for Easter. They repair things, paint trees with lime and do the cleaning. On Holy Thursday, they begin to make Easter bread and cakes and to paint eggs. The Easter and the red painted eggs have deep Christian roots. The Easter bread is made only of water, flour and salt and has the form of the sun with a cross on the top. Cow’s cheese is put between the elements of the cross. The cross in the middle of the bread represents the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. The Christians take this bread to church on the Resurrection Night to have it blessed.
The painted eggs are an indispensable element on the Easter table. Red is the traditional color. The egg is the symbol of life and looks like an inert object, but this later gives birth to life. A legend says a basket with eggs was put at the legs of the crucified Jesus and his blood painted the eggs red. Another legend says that after Jesus Crusts returned to life, one of the first Christians who announced this miracle said “Jesus is risen as this white egg will turn red”. And the egg indeed turned red after he said this. The red eggs remind of the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the cross and of the fact that Jesus revived.
Before the Easter Vigil, the people put on the newest and cleanest clothes and choose the best food for being blessed. When they return from church, they eat blessed food first. In villages, the people used to touch the basket with blessed food against domestic animals so that these were healthy throughout the year.
An old Easter tradition says the whole family, after returning from the Easter Vigil, should wash in the morning with clean water in which they put red painted eggs and coins. The eggs are put for the family members to look well and be healthy, while the coins are put to bring welfare or cleanness, similar to the cleanness silver and gold. The knocking of eggs is another Easter tradition. The parents knock eggs between them the first. Then they knock eggs with children, relatives and friends. They say the people who knock eggs on Easter will see each other in heaven, said the ethnologist.
They still keep the tradition of Easter caroling in some areas. The carols are religious songs about the sufferings and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. They are sung in church or during the Easter meal that brings together the whole family.
The candle brought from church is kept and is lit before the icon in case of natural disaster or disease to protect the family.
