The main Christian holiday is Easter. Easter has no specific date; as a rule, it is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. This year Easter is celebrated from 7 to 8 April. We decided to figure out what else, apart from the tradition of baking cakes, painting eggs and saying to each other “Christ is risen”, we know about this holiday.
Holidays feast and celebration of celebrations
Easter is the oldest of the Christian holidays. It is associated with one of the most famous traditions of the Old Testament - the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The dogmatic belief in the resurrection from the dead is the main doctrine of Christianity, emphasizing the human and divine nature of Jesus. In the theological understanding, the death of Christ completes his acceptance of suffering and sharing it with all of humanity. Orthodox people call Easter “a holiday of holidays and a celebration of celebrations”, emphasizing its paramount importance. However, Easter is connected with the story of the resurrection exclusively in the New Testament, while the Old Testament interprets it differently.
The Hebrew word Pesach, or Passover, means the Jewish Passover. “Pasach” is translated from Hebrew - “passed, passed by”. In this case, we are talking about the "Ten Executions of the Egyptians" - the calamities described in the Pentateuch, which befell the Egyptian people for the Pharaoh's refusal to free the Jews. According to legend, Moses demands the release of the Jewish people, promising that otherwise God will punish the Egyptians. Pharaoh opposes, and God in response sends ten plagues on his subjects, the last of which is the death of the firstborn. “At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in prison, and all the firstborn of cattle. God passed the Jewish houses (pass), the sons of Israel were saved and became free, hence the name.
Celebration traditions
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In the Old Testament tradition, on Easter it was supposed to sacrifice a lamb - a one-year-old lamb or a kid, which should be baked over the fire and eaten during Easter night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
In the New Testament, the Passover meal is associated with the Last Supper, the last meal of Jesus, during which he said that one of the congregation would betray him. Accordingly, the Old Testament sacrifices are abolished and the Eucharist becomes a tradition - the consecration of bread (symbolizing the flesh of Christ) and wine (symbol of the blood of Christ).
In the modern world, the Easter fire plays an important role in divine services. It symbolizes the "light of God" after the resurrection of Christ. In Orthodox churches, it is lit from the Holy Fire brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Those who come to the temple light candles from it, and some take the lamp home and then keep the fire going throughout the year.
The celebration of Easter is somewhat different in the Orthodox and Catholic traditions. So, before the beginning of the service, Catholics light Easter - a special Easter candle, the fire from which is then distributed to all Christians.
Easter food
Easter bread is traditionally prepared for the festive table. "Kulich" is exclusively its Russian name. Curiously, the cake does not have to be in the form of a cylinder. For example, in the Vologda province, it used to be cooked in the form of an open berry pie. Also, the cake can be made in the form of a church prosphora - a liturgical liturgical bread. Usually Easter cake is made from yeast dough, raisins are added there, and vanilla, cardamom or nutmeg are added as spices. Sometimes the Easter cake is called “Easter” or “pasta”, but in reality it is another dish made from cottage cheese. Outwardly, Easter looks like a truncated pyramid; a special wooden or plastic form is used for its manufacture - a pasochna. For cooking, take cottage cheese and eggs, add spices. You can also add raisins and candied fruits as decoration.
In the Orthodox tradition, there is also a custom of giving hard-boiled eggs and dyed in different colors using food dyes or onion skins. This custom is associated with the legend of the egg, presented by Mary Magdalene to Emperor Tiberius. According to legend, the Magdalene gave Tiberius an egg colored red with the words “Christ is risen”. She was very poor, but did not want to appear before the emperor empty-handed. The red color in this case is the blood of the crucified Christ. In another version of this legend, the emperor doubted the resurrection of Christ, after which the egg turned red before his eyes.
Easter games
Probably one of the few surviving Slavic games is the custom of “christening” with eggs. Participants take turns hitting eggs against each other and the one whose egg survived wins. There is also a Slavic and Germanic game called "rolling eggs". It consists in the fact that children roll eggs along special paths. For Christians, rolling an egg symbolizes a stone that rolled from the Holy Sepulcher before the resurrection of Christ.
It is curious that in America there is a tradition of rolling eggs in front of the White House. The game differs from the Russian one in that the eggs are rolled with ladles. There is a photo where President Ronald Reagan and his wife are participating in the game.
In some countries it is also customary to hide Easter eggs on Easter morning, and the task of children is to find a kind of “nest” of the Easter bunny. In general, the Easter bunny as a symbol of fertility became a symbol of Easter in Germany, and then spread throughout the world.
