On the eve of the brightest Easter holiday, I would like to talk about Ukrainian Easter.
Easter is the holiday of the resurrection of Christ, in which Christian and pagan elements are combined. Easter (in Ukrainian: Great Day), preceded by seven weeks of Lent, is celebrated on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox and full moon. This is the most joyful holiday for the Orthodox.

Ukrainian Easter is a historically established combination of pagan and Christian traditions. Great Day was celebrated thousands of years ago as the victory of Light over Darkness, Day over Night, Spring over Winter. And the Resurrection of Christ began to be celebrated in 988, after the baptism of Kievan Rus. For a while, both of these systems coexisted, then people were forbidden to follow pagan traditions, but later the church decided to use pagan customs in the rituals of Easter, such as dyeing eggs and baking Easter cake.

The last Sunday before Easter is called Palm Sunday. On this day, willow branches are sacred in the church.

The week before Easter is called the Great, Holy, White or Clean week. At this time, they try to finish all the work by Thursday, because work is prohibited from Thursday. "Maundy Thursday" is associated with the ritual of purification with water.

You cannot work on Good Friday. In some localities, the Holy Shroud is carried three times around the church and after the service is displayed for worship.

On Saturday nights, people gather in church for the Easter Vigil service, which lasts until the morning, when the priests bless the food that the believers have brought with them. After that, people go home to celebrate Easter with their families. When meeting other people, they say: "Christ is risen!", And they are answered: "Indeed he is risen!" All people exchange Easter greetings and give each other krashankas.

Easter cake (kulich, paska) and colored eggs are symbols of Ukrainian Easter, which must be on the table that day. The cake is baked from yeast dough in the shape of a cylinder. Krashanka is a boiled colored egg. On this day, Ukrainian children play their favorite game: breaking Easter eggs. If you kick someone else in the egg and your egg doesn't break, then you are the winner.

Easter eggs (krashanki and pysanka) are an ancient pre-Christian element that plays an important role in Easter rituals. On this day, they are given or exchanged. There is also a ritual of sprinkling with water, which is still carried out in Western Ukraine the day after Easter - on Wet Monday (Pouring on Monday). This ceremony is carried out by young people - the guys usually pour water over the girls.

On Easter days in Ukraine, the dead are commemorated. This is done throughout the week after Easter, especially on the first Sunday after Easter. People gather in cemeteries, bring food and wine with them, and commemorate the dead, leaving some of the food on the graves.