I love the traditions associated with Ukrainian Easter, especially the Blessing of the Easter Basket, which contains all the food items served during Easter Sunday Brunch.

The Easter Basket of special foods (described below) is arranged on Holy Saturday and taken to church, where the parish priest performs a special blessing ceremony with prayers and sprinkling with Holy Water. Some churches perform their basket blessing on Easter Sunday, after the Morning Resurrection Liturgy.

The Easter Basket filled with special foods is also decorated with greenery, flowers, colored eggs, and beautiful Pysanky.  It is covered with a hand-embroidered cloth cover with an Easter motif of pussy willows, Easter Eggs and Easter message Khystos Voskres, Christ is Risen.  This blessed food is the only item on the Easter Sunday morning brunch menu that breaks the Great Lent Fast and begins the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Easter celebration continues for the rest of the day, with family and friends visiting and enjoying many other foods and desserts.  In many parishes on the afternoon of Easter Sunday, the children and youth participate in special spring dances, “Hahilky,” to entertain the audience and continue the Easter celebrations.  They are dressed in Ukrainian Native costumes representing different regions of Ukraine.

Today, I will describe all the different foods used to fill the basket and their Christian symbolism.

Paska – Special Easter Bread (sweet yeast bread rich in eggs, butter, etc), takes center stage in the basket.

Symbolic of Christ, who is the True Bread to Christians. Paska bread is round and decorated with a dough braid around the perimeter, and an ornamental cross in the middle.  The Cross reminds Christians that Christ died on the Cross for their salvation.Baked Ham – a very popular meat for the Slavs as the main dish, because of its richness.  It is symbolic of the great joy and abundance of Easter.  Some prefer Lamb or Veal.

Kobasa – a spicy, garlicky, smoked pork sausage.  Indicative of God’s favor and generosity.

Red Beet Vinaigrette (with Horseradish), or plain Horseradish, is symbolic of the Passion of Christ still in the minds of Christians, but sweetened with a bit of sugar, because of the Resurrection.  The bitter-sweet red-colored mixture is a reminder of the sufferings of Christ.

Salt is also included in the basket, necessary for flavor, and a reminder to Christians of their duty to others.Butter – A favorite dairy product, is usually nicely displayed and decorated with a cross made out of cloves or allspice grains.  Some prefer to mold it into the shape of a Lamb.  Butter is symbolic of the goodness of Christ.Cheese – Creamed cheese, or “Hrudka”, a sweetened cheese ball, decorated with the same herbs as butter, is indicative of the moderation that Christians should have in all things.

Eggs – are another very important food item in the Easter Basket.  All eggs are hard-boiled and kept in their shell. There should be at least one or two hard-boiled eggs per person, for the Easter Brunch.  One of the hard-boiled eggs has the shell removed so on Easter Brunch it can be cut into as many pieces as there are attendees and shared with everyone, followed by an Easter Greeting:  Khrystos Voskres! Voistynu Voskres! Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Wishing you a Happy and Blessed Easter!!