Some of Russian Easter celebration traditions.

CHRIST IS ALIVE!

 Russian Easter doesn’t always fall on the same dates as the Western  Christian Churches. It is explained by the differences in the calendar used by different countries. The Russian Federation, (Russian State) as well and other Western States follow the Gregorian Calendar, however the Russian Orthodox Church uses Julian Calendar that is usually 2 weeks after. And since the Easter does not have set day, but rather varies by the Equinox, Russian Easter celebration is almost always on the different date (unlike Russian Christmas, observed on January 7th, that constitutes 2 weeks difference from the date the Western Churches celebration).  

In the Russian Orthodox Church Lent covers the 40 days before Easter. As explained in dictionaries, lent is an annual season of fasting in preparation for a certain religious event. It involves certain types of restrictions, mostly culinary. The allowed diet could be simply explained as vegan: any food items containing animal products (including dairy and eggs) are not allowed. Lent is merely a time to restrict things one may enjoy: parties, celebrations, alcohol. 
On the Thursday before Easter Sunday every Russian family would spend the day tidying up their houses, dying the eggs, and preparing special Easter treats called: “KILICH” and “PASKHA” .

Easter is an important religious holiday in Russia.  Year after year Easter is celebrated on a different day, and Russian Easter usually comes later. It is called “Paskha” .

Traditionally, Russians will start celebrating Easter on Sunday morning by going to church for Easter service, bringing baskets with eggs and Paskha (Russian Easter bread) to the church to be blessed.  After the service, Russians return to their homes where they have traditional Easter feast. People usually visit their relatives.  The traditional greeting, if translated is “Christ is resurrected” the answer to this is “Christ is resurrected indeed ”.

There are many explanations for the color and ornaments of Russian Easter Easter Eggs. The curve means Eternity and the Sun cycle, the grate and the fylfot symbolizes the Sun. The red color has the meaning of joy and love, the yellow color means the moon and stars or the crops, the bronze color stands for Mother Earth .

There is no Easter Bunny or Easter egg hunt in Russia. Children receive painted eggs (wooden or hard boiled chicken) and Easter sweets. This painting ( Nikilai Koshelev, "Children Rolling Easter Eggs", 1855) of Russian children playing Easter eggs game: every child takes a turn to roll the egg down a wooden ramp, and the winner is the one whose egg rolled the farthest. Another game Russian children enjoy playing on  Easter is this: children pair up each holding hard boiled egg in ones hand.  Then they hit one egg off the other to see whose egg breaks first, then the “tougher” egg is the winner!

  С Праздником Светлой Пасхи!

  Happy Easter!