Russian Easter - Пасха

The Catholic Easter has just been celebrated so now it's time for the Orthodox Easter. We celebrate it one week later - 8th of April this year. It is a family holiday like in many other countries. However, unlike UK or France where often days before and after are holidays as well, in Russia only the Easter day is a day off. We have some Easter traditions that differ from those in Catholic countries.

Great Lent

Easter (Paskha) is preceded by 40 days of Great Lent, the most important event in the Orthodox church year. Those who observe it are not supposed to eat meat, dairy and, on some days, even vegetable oils. On the last Friday before Easter (Good Friday), no food or drink should be consumed until the evening. However, nowadays people rarely follow all the rules of Lent, but still can follow some.

Food

Today you can find Easter chocolate eggs and bunnies in supermarkets, but they are not traditional Easter food. Families usually cook an Easter Cake (Пасха) or buy it. There is a unofficial tradition of spending a week before looking for the best cake, tasting it and then buying 10 of them. We often gift those cakes with hard boiled painted eggs. Usually we don't have chocolate eggs, we just have normal eggs. Traditionally, they are painted in different colours.

Days before and after Easter we keep the cakes and eggs on the table like on this photo.

There’s a special greeting

We rarely stay at home on Easter; this holiday is all about family gatherings and festive dinners. So throughout the day we exchange Easter eggs, kiss each other on the cheek three times, and often say “Christ is risen!” to each other, responding with “He is truly risen!”

Church service at night

The Easter church service starts on Saturday evening and lasts until dawn. This is usually an impressive ceremony with candle lights and liturgical chants. At midnight, the bells are rung to announce the resurrection of Christ; the priest says “Christ is risen!” and parishioners are supposed to respond with “He is truly risen!”

On Saturdays, everyone cooks traditional Easter food and those who fast are not allowed to taste it while cooking. It is also common to bless the food at church during the night service.

Photo: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/russia/articles/10-things-you-should-know-about-celebrating-easter-in-russia/

We don't have an Easter egg hunter, our Easter is more 'going to church and spending Sunday with family' holiday. It is not very exciting, but still an important tradition that everybody enjoys.