This Sunday the Orthodox will celebrate Easter - one of the most important holidays in the Christian tradition. Nevertheless, many non-religious people also eat Easter cake on this day and paint eggs for it in advance. We learned from the priest what the rules are, why Easter cakes are baked for Easter, and whether it is possible for non-Orthodox people to celebrate this day.

Andrey Posternak

Priest

Easter, eggs and Easter cakes have been cooked since time immemorial, it is obvious that this tradition arose even in the period when there was no Christianity, although we do not know about this exactly and in detail. Christian tradition has put a completely different meaning into this: the egg is a symbol of life. There is a well-known story that was included in the Life of St. Mary Magdalene - that she brought an egg to Emperor Tiberius as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ, the birth of a new life. Of course, we do not know the authenticity of this story, but life recorded it. And it is clear that the birth of a new life and the red color (as the color of the blood of Christ) will become the Easter color from then on.

Easter in shape resembles the tomb of Christ, at least there is such an interpretation, but Easter cake is a memory of prosphora, on the one hand, and on the other, of bread, which is blessed on Saturday, a week after Easter, and is called "artos" .
Easter cakes, eggs and Easter are traditionally consecrated on the eve of Easter itself, on Saturday, or, more rarely, on Easter day itself, when artos bread is always blessed after the festive service. For a week it stands in the temple in front of the altar on a special stand - an lectern, during the procession it is also worn around the temple. And a week after Easter, on Saturday, it is cut into pieces and distributed to believers like prosphora, which is eaten on an empty stomach. It is artos in its form that is the prototype of Easter cake.

It is clear that all three of these foods are made from non-fast foods: Easter also marks the end of Lent. And on Easter, of course, there is no rigidly regulated tradition associated with church canons - what, how and when to eat. The most important thing is that there are elements of non-lean food: cottage cheese, eggs, butter. And how to cook these dishes and in what proportions, there is no regulation. Also, there is no unification in the coloring of eggs - they can be decorated as you like. So here the ingredients themselves do not play any role, you can change the recipe and add something from yourself, there are no special requirements for these dishes.

How to eat Easter and Easter cake and in what order is also not important, because there are no rules. You can smear Easter on Easter cake, you can not do this, Easter cake can be dry or not, it all depends on the recipe, and here everyone chooses their own. No unification in Russian Orthodox Church does not exist, and in different parishes and communities this is treated calmly.

The Orthodox do not mind that non-religious people also celebrate Easter, the main thing is that there is respect and reverence for the existing tradition.

How did the custom of preparing Easter cottage cheese and Easter cakes for the Easter table appear?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

By ancient tradition, The Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection came to the apostles during their meals. The middle place remained unoccupied, in the middle of the table lay the bread intended for Him. Gradually, a tradition appeared on Sunday to leave bread in the temple (in Greek it was called "artos"). It was left on a special table, as the apostles did. Throughout bright week the artos is carried around during the processions around the temple, and on Saturday, after the blessing, it is distributed to the faithful. Since the family is a small Church, the custom gradually appeared to have its own artos. This was the Easter cake (from the Greek kollikion - round bread) - tall, cylindrical, bread made from rich dough. This word entered the European languages: kulich (Spanish), koulitch (French). Having an Easter cake on the table during the Easter meal, we have the hope that the resurrected Lord is invisibly present in our house.

Cottage cheese Easter (in Trebnik - “milky thickened”, that is, cottage cheese) has the shape of a truncated pyramid, which symbolizes the coffin in which the greatest miracle of the Resurrection took place. Therefore, on the upper side there should be the letters "ХВ", meaning the greeting "Christ is Risen!". Traditionally, images of a cross, a spear, a cane, as well as sprouts and flowers, symbolizing the sufferings and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, are made on the sides of the beekeeper (form).

On Easter days, Christians greet each other with a joyful triumphant exclamation "Christ is Risen!". At the same time, kissing has been accepted since apostolic times. According to tradition, believers give each other red eggs. Tradition says that this custom originates from the Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, who offered the emperor Tiberius a red egg with the greeting "Christ is Risen!" The egg serves as a symbol of the coffin and the emergence of life in its very depths; painted with red paint, it marks our rebirth by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Publications in the Traditions section

Traditional Easter dishes

We recall recipes from pre-revolutionary cookbooks.

Photo: Nikolai Okhitin / photo bank "Lori"

Preparing for a festive meal for Easter always began in advance. Many products were stored in advance: in pre-revolutionary cookbooks, it was advised to leave “the most beautiful head of a wild boar” for Easter when cutting livestock. Advertisements were printed in newspapers and books - where you can buy paint and special paper to color eggs. On Easter Day, the table was covered with a white tablecloth, decorated with a dish of germinated wheat, fresh or paper flowers, and willow branches. Traditional Easter dishes were placed in the center - curd Easter, Easter cakes, colored eggs. It was with them that the breaking of the fast after the night service began.

Yasnaya Polyana cottage cheese Easter

Ingredients:
* cottage cheese - 3 kg 200 g
* cream - 1 bottle
* sour cream - 1 kg 200 g
* butter- 400 g
* raisins (kishmish) - 400 g
* cinnamon - 400 g
* vanilla - 1 pod
* sugar
* salt
Recipe:
Mix cottage cheese, cream, sour cream and butter. Add raisins, cinnamon (raisin variety. - Approx. ed.), vanilla, sugar and salt to taste. Received to mix, put in a bee-keeper and put oppression.

Easter recipe taken from Sophia Tolstoy's 1889 "Cookbook"

Photo: Syda Productions / Lori photo bank

Easter eggs are dyed in different manners:

a) They are dyed in shreds of silk fabric of different colors. These shreds should be plucked, mixed, the eggs should be washed thoroughly, wiped clean, then moistened again, wrapped in silk, and cut out pieces of blue sugar paper should be applied to the eggs with patterns. Cover all this with a rag, tie it with threads, lower the eggs into a saucepan with cold water. From the minute they boil, cook for 10 minutes, remove, cool, then remove the rag and silk.
b) Wash the eggs clean, wipe them, wrap them in a rag, tie them with threads and drip some ink on top with a wooden stick; lower into water and, when they boil, cook for 10 minutes, remove, cool, then remove the rag.
c) Painted in red paint, namely: pour 100 g of sandalwood into a medium-sized pot, pour cold water, leave until the next day, then put on the stove. When it boils, add alum, stir, lower the eggs, hold on the edge of the stove until the eggs are colored, then put on a big fire, boil them for 10 minutes, then cool, remove from the coloring, wipe with cotton wool soaked in Provence oil ( olive oil. - Approx. ed.), then wipe dry with a towel, put on a dish, on a napkin. In the same paint, you can paint eggs two or three changes.
d) They paint it in the same way in yellow paint, and eggs are boiled in the husks from the bulbs or in the leaves of a young birch.

Recipe from the book by Elena Molokhovets "A Gift to Young Housewives, or a Means to Reduce Household Expenses" 1897

After breaking the fast, they ate porridge and snacks from vegetables and mushrooms. Also on the Easter table were served traditional sauces - horseradish and mustard, herbs and many meat dishes. Among them could be pate, cold veal, stuffed poultry, aspic, boiled pig's head, and even boiled or baked piglet whole. At the same time, it was not customary to serve hot dishes on the Easter table.

Hare pate

For the pâté, take the back of the hare, fry it a little in cow's butter, and then separate the meat from the bones. The bones are poured with meat broth and put to boil, adding 1 onion, ¼ celery root, 1 parsley root, 2 bay leaves, and, if available, you can put a veal leg or even a veal bone here so that the broth gets some stickiness. Pass the meat, along with fresh lard, through a meat grinder (1 pound of lard is enough for 2 pounds of meat), sprinkle with salt, simple and English pepper, add the broth in which the bones were boiled so that the mixture turns out to be a thick puree and, after mixing well, fold into cover the pan lined with dough with the same cake and bake in the oven until cooked, so that the dough is well browned. The pate is taken out of the pan the next day to cool completely, and therefore it should not be baked in a copper pan.

Recipe from The Mistress's Companion, 1908. Compiled by E. Petrozhitskaya (née Von-Brummer)

The Easter meal ended with sweets. Not only Easter cake and cottage cheese Easter were served on the table, but also other desserts. Their assortment depended on the wealth of the family. On the tables of the aristocrats there were many sweet dishes: first of all, women and mazurkas (varieties of sweet pies), cakes and gingerbread, jellies and mousses, compotes and kissels.

“The woman is very tall and light for the Easter table”

When preparing this baba, one must be very careful, because from any carelessness and a strong push, it easily falls off. Stir as well as possible ½ garnets of flour (1 garnets - 3.2 kg. - Approx. Ed.), ¼ garnets of milk, pour in ¾ cup of strained yeast, stir, cover and put in a warm place; when the yeast starts to rise, beat the dough with a spatula, add salt, pour in ¼ of the egg yolks, beat with a spatula until smooth, put 1 ½ cups of melted butter, stir the other ½ cup of flour again, add, finally, 2 cups of sugar, raisins from ½ cup, chopped sweet almonds with ½ cup bitter - 15 pieces, mix all this well and put in a warm place; when the dough arrives in half, knock it out with a spatula, pour it into a buttered mold, which must be filled into ¼ parts; when the dough has risen to a third of the mold, insert it carefully into the oven for 1 ¼ hours.

Recipe from the "Cookbook of the famous culinary specialist D.I. Bobrinsky" in 1913

Photo: Marina Slavina / photo bank "Lori"

Mazurka from the book "Easter Recipes"

Prepare crumbly dough like this: put on the table 1 ½ pounds of flour, ½ pound of fine sugar, 2 whole eggs, grate the zest from one lemon, 1 pound of Chukhon butter (butter from fermented cream. - Approx. ed.), washed in cold water, knead everything well, that is, knead with your hand, roll out a not very thin square or oval strip on flour, fold it on an iron sheet, put it in the oven to brown a little, then remove it from the oven and leave to cool; meanwhile, scald ¾ pound sweet almonds, peel them, rinse in cold water, chop not very finely, place in a light oven heat to dry a little, but do not let it overcook, take out, let the almonds cool completely, put them in a saucepan, add 1 pound of granulated sugar, 6 pieces of protein, mix well, put on the stove, heat well as hot as possible, but do not let it boil. Then remove from the stove and put immediately hot on a baked cake, smooth with a knife and put in a hot oven; as it turns red, take it out and remove it until it has cooled down, from the sheet to a shallow and even dish. So that the mazurka does not break, this mazurka is removed from above with various fruits and jam, but it is best to fill it with apricot marmalade, that is, mashed apricots with sugar; for 1 glass of mashed potatoes 1 glass of sugar, cook, stirring, on the stove for ½ hour and pour the mazurka hot.

Recipe from the book "Easter table. Easter cakes, Easters, books and mazurkas, 1905. Compiled by A. Rumyantsev, teacher at the St. Petersburg Culinary School

Like other major holidays of the Christian calendar, Easter is a solemn holiday, associated with its own rites and rituals, many of which originate in antiquity. A special place among the Easter rituals is occupied by those associated with food.

In fact, for the vast majority of Russian families, in general, the traditions and rituals of Easter are associated exclusively with food - in recent decades the rest are simply not passed down from generation to generation and are often forgotten and then not reintroduced in new families. But in order to get real pleasure from the holiday, you need to understand what is happening, why and in what sequence. And traditional holiday food is no exception.

Easter cakes

Traditionally baked on Good Thursday, on the day when, according to Biblical tradition, Christ broke (that is, shared) bread with his disciples for the last time and said that “this is my body, broken for you”, after which he was soon betrayed by Judas .

However, bread, as a symbol of the body, was such long before Christ, and some researchers argue that Christ used an ancient respected tradition in order to emphasize the importance of the current moment and symbolically show the disciples what will happen to Him in the near future.

Easter cakes are both an image of the body of Christ and, at the same time, a symbol of mother earth, which gives us all physical life. Thus, Easter cake is, as it were, a union of both the spiritual and physical components of our life and an annual reminder of this.

In order for Easter cake to be not an ordinary, but a significant traditional Easter dish, you need to remember the rules for making it - kneading dough, kneading dough, baking, and the rules for eating it. So, the dough was certainly mixed with prayer and in a special state of peace, silence and lack of fuss. The subsequent parting of the dough is also important - after all, in a certain sense, this is already a symbol of health and longevity. In addition, during the whole process of cooking Easter cakes in the house, a special atmosphere of sacrament and sacred rites is observed: windows do not open, if possible the front door does not open, silence and good mood are observed.

There are also traditions for how to eat Easter cake. Baked Easter cakes will be eaten for at least a week after Easter (up to and including Radonitsa), so they should be stored especially carefully. And the first meal after Lent will begin with Easter cake. Easter cake is also cut in a special way: if possible, by the head of the family, after returning from church, the consecration of the cake and eggs. Easter cake is often cut into rings, and the cake cap is eaten last, because if the cake was not eaten in one sitting, it acts as a lid, helping to keep the cake fresh and not dried out.

This dish has many variations: krashenki, and kapanki, and pysanky, and just eggs boiled in onion skins. The symbol of the egg is simple and uncomplicated, on the one hand, and powerful and unknowable, on the other. The egg is the symbol of life. new life.

"And, since Easter is the feast of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, that is, the restoration of life after death, the egg, known since ancient times as a symbol of life, was used by Mary Magdalene as a gift that symbolized the resurrection of Christ.

For dyeing, fresh chicken eggs. Preferably small ones, because earlier, before the existence of incubators and hormonal feeding for birds, chickens began to lay again just shortly before Easter, and the first eggs after the winter “hibernation” were small. Now small eggs are laid by those hens who lay for the first time and have not yet set the goal of their life to lay without interruption.

Eggs are painted more often at the same time when Easter cakes are baked - on Good Thursday. As well as for the preparation of a full-fledged ritual Easter cake, eggs are made only in a special, almost prayerful state. It is up to the hostess to decide at what time to cook the eggs: the main thing is that this happens without anguish and not under the yoke of obligations.

Easter in 2018, the main Christian holiday, established in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on April 8. On this day, folk festivals will begin, and the main dishes will be eggs, Easter cakes and cottage cheese Easter.

In the Orthodox tradition, Easter is considered the "king of days". The main event of the festival is worship in the temple. Easter service begins on the night from Saturday to Sunday. During Holy Saturday and after the Easter service in churches, everything that

Ready for the holiday table. The first course during the Easter meal is an egg, which is traditionally cut into pieces according to the number of people sitting at the table. After that, everyone gets a slice of Easter cake and a spoonful of curd Easter. Then red wine and the rest of the festive food are placed on the table.

Each family has long been preparing its own signature dishes for Easter, which were based on old Russian cuisine. Various appetizers were put on the table, jelly, liver omentum, nanny - stewed buckwheat porridge with lamb meat and rennet, roast with mushroom seasoning, beef with turnips, boiled pork in hay dust with beer, duck with honey or goose fried with juniper.

Kissels and sbitni were cooked, homemade tinctures and wines were taken out. Wealthy hosts served 48 different dishes - according to the number of days of the expired fast. But in addition to family meals, ritual dishes were also indispensable attributes of the holiday.

Easter cakes and to this day remain the main symbol of the holiday. Since ancient times, they had to be baked in such sizes that each family member had enough of a piece for each day of the Easter week. In addition, it was believed that in a large volume the dough is better fermented. Easter cake is baked in memory of how Christ ate bread with the disciples so that they would believe in his resurrection. Kulich symbolizes the presence of God in the world and in human life. The sweetness and beauty of the Easter cake express the care of the Lord for every human being. Therefore, ready-made Easter cakes are richly decorated with icing, various symbolic inscriptions (XB letters) and dyed millet. It is believed that if the cake is a success, then everything will be fine in the family. Therefore, on the day when Easter cakes are made, the house should be peaceful and quiet - then nothing will disturb the dough that is suitable in the forms and the Easter cakes will turn out wonderful.

Easter eggs- a symbol of the miraculous birth - the Resurrection of Christ. According to legend, when Mary Magdalene presented an egg as a gift to Emperor Tiberius as a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, the emperor, having doubts, said that just as an egg does not turn red from white, so the dead do not rise. The egg immediately turned red. Therefore, although eggs are dyed in different colors, red is traditional.

Curd Easter It is customary to make it in the form of a tetrahedral pyramid - the personification of Golgotha. If you do not have a bean bag - a collapsible wooden form of four planks - use a small round form. The main component of Easter is mashed cottage cheese, to which they put butter, sour cream or cream, eggs, sugar and all kinds of additives to taste. There are many Easter recipes: boiled and unboiled, sour cream and cream, chocolate and pistachio. Easter is present on the festive table as a symbol of the Old Testament Paschal lamb and a reminder that the time for bloody sacrifices has passed.