Презентація "Великдень в Україні"

Easter in Ukraine

Easter is the most important holiday of the year. It is a religious holiday, because Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. It is celebrated in spring, in April or May. The date of celebrating changes every year. It falls on one of spring Sundays. Preparation for Easter starts seven weeks ahead of time with the advent of Lent. Believers don’t eat meat and animal products.

Palm Sunday, the week before Easter, is known in Ukraine as Willow Sunday. People bring home willow branches which have been blessed in church.

People prepare for the celebration during the last week, which we name Holy Week. The Thursday before Easter is called Clean Thursday. The house must be clean too.

Good Friday is the day that the women of the family bake “paska”, Ukrainian Easter bread. This day was called Good (or Holy) Friday. It’s really an important day for many Christians, because Jesus was crucified on this day. Jesus’ sacrifice was made for us. It’s a day when people say the prayers of thanksgiving and sing solemn hymns.

On Saturday children dye Easter eggs to add to the Easter basket. Easter eggs are the traditional food in several countries. Pysanka shells have been found in archaeological sites from more than 3000 years ago, and many of those designs are still being used on pysanka today.

Easter begins with the Easter matins and high mass, during which the pasky (traditional Easter breads) and pysanky and krashanky (decorated or colored Easter eggs) are blessed in church. Butter, lard, cheese, roost suckling pigs, sausage, smoked meat, and little napkings containing poppy seeds, millet, salt, pepper, and horseradish are also blessed.

After the matins all the people in the congregation exchange Easter greetings, give each other krashanky, and then hurry home with their baskets of blessed food (sviachene)

In Western Ukraine at Easter the girls perform special choral dances on the church grounds. These are the haivky or hahilky, which have retained a number of motifs that are older than those of the ordinary spring songs (vesnianky)

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!