James Coleman
America Inside Out
Ukrainian Easter4/15/2018 Hi guys! Today I want to tell you about celebrating Ukrainian Easter with my host family last week. In Orthodox Christianity, all holidays are celebrated in a week or two later than in Catholic or Protestant. That’s why unlike American Easter, Ukrainian was not on 1st of April but on 8th. In Ukraine, we have a lot of different Easter traditions, so I tried to share some of them. In the morning we decorated eggs with special sleeve-stickers I brought from home: you put an egg in a plastic colorful sleeve, then dip the egg into the hot water, the sticker shrinks and sticks on the egg. My host mom baked some zucchini raisin bread which looked like Ukrainian Easter cake. Then we set everything in the Easter baskets called the Pascha baskets, covered it with embroidered towels and went to the Orthodox Church in Loveland. In the church, the priest blessed our baskets with the holy water, and we stayed there for half an hour to listen to the special Easter service. Orthodox churches usually have few benches, but you are not supposed to sit during the service, so it was a little bit exhausting. However, it definitely worth that, as the singing of the priest and church choir, all the beautiful paintings on the walls and golden decorations, the smell of the church candles made with incense were amazing! To sum up, it was a wonderful family day and a great experience. If you ever have a possibility to visit Ukraine, you should definitely do it on Easter time as it’s a beautiful holiday with unusual traditions.
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Leave a Reply.Daria GoptsiiAn exchange student from Ukraine. Archives
April 2018
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