Презентація на тему: "Traditions of celebrating Easter in Ukraine and Great Britain"

Easter is a very important festival in Great Britain. Easter day is always on Sunday, and it is in spring. The wish for this day is “Happy Easter”. There are many symbols and interesting traditions on this day.

The symbol of Easter is an Easter bunny, a happy rabbit with a basket of chocolate eggs. He brings these eggs to children on Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday morning children look for the eggs. It's a very exciting Easter egg hunt. For this reason, chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs are very popular in Great Britain. Children have a basket to collect their eggs. 

Children and parents make a very nice decoration. They put branches in a vase and hang eggs on them.

At Easter people used to wear special hats. They are called bonnets.

In Britain, on the Thursday before Easter Sunday, the Queen goes to Westminster Abbey and she gives money to some poor people. Westminster Abbey is a very famous cathedral in London. 

Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday. On this day people eat hot cross buns. These are small loaves bread of sweet bread with fruit and spices and they have a cross on top. They are best when you eat them hot.

Another Easter tradition is egg rolling. People decorate eggs with different colors. They take the eggs on the top of the hill and eggs roll down. The first egg to get to the bottom of the hill, is the winner.

Holy week is the week before Easter Sunday (Velykden). It begins with Willow Sunday (Palm Sunday) when Ukrainians go to the church and bless willow branches, then they gently tap each other with the branches and wish (each other) good health, wealth, and happiness. 

The next important day of the week is Holy Thursday. On this day, people clean, wash, cook and bake because, after Thursday, it is not allowed to do any housework.

Good Friday is commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. This day people follow a strict fast, so no meat or dairy products are allowed to be eaten. People should not do any manual labor either. Even conversations should be quiet.

During Lent, the faithful people don’t eat any meat or dairy products; that is why on their Easter basket, they have everything to break one’s fast: eggs, cheese, ham, bacon, sausages, horseradish, butter, salt, wine, and of course paska – the Easter bread.

Finally, Easter Sunday comes. Ukraine’s Easter holiday follows the Easter dates set by the Orthodox Christian Church; that is why the date is based on the Julian calendar and is celebrated later than in many Western countries. Each year the date of the Great day is different

On Saturday night, people go to the church for service and bring their Easter baskets with them. The priest blesses their meals with holy water during the service. After the church, people go to their homes to celebrate and greet each other with the words: “Christ is Risen!” – “Truly, He is Risen!”).

Coloured eggs:  Krashanky are the hardboiled eggs. Traditionally Ukrainians use natural dyes to colour the eggs: onion peel and beetroot. On Sunday morning, when the food is blessed, people start their Easter feast with paska and krashanky. There is also a famous “egg battle” game when two people wrap their eggs together, and if someone’s eggshell breaks, that person has lost.