Пасхальні традиції в Україні

Дослідницько-проектна робота

на тему:

«Пасхальні традиції в Україні.»

“Easter Traditions in Ukraine.”

Contents

I. Introduction

II. Easter History 

III. The Week before Easter

  3.1. Palm Sunday

 3.2. Pure (Chystyi) Week

3.3. A Paschal cake (“Paska”)

3.4. The “Krashanka” and “Pysanka”

IV. Easter Day

     4.1. How Easter was celebrated in Ukraine many years ago

V. Conclusions

VI. References 

    

I. Introduction

Christ is risen, and death is annihilated!

Christ is risen, and the evil ones are cast down!

Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!

Christ is risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;

For Christ having risen from the dead!

One of the greatest holidays of the year is Easter. Ev­ery spring all Christians celebrate the festival of awaken­ing nature, relating the rising of the Sun to the Resurrec­tion of Christ and their spiritual rebirth.

In Ukrainian, Easter is called "Velykden" (the Great Day). It has been celebrated over a long period of history and has had many rich folk traditions that are no longer fully preserved.

Easter is the most important festival in the Chris­tian calendar, and it holds the key to understanding Christianity. This holiday celebrates Christ's rising from the dead, the reawakening of Nature.

Most Ukrainian Easter traditions revolve around food in one way or another.

Perhaps the religious exultation and the merri­ment of spring are enhanced by the anticipation of holiday gluttony. After all Easter marks the end of the 40-day Lent fast when all foods made of animal products are prohibited.

II. Easter History

The holy actions of the ancient Ukrainian religion took place in natural conditions — under the sky, where all the original elements of the World are present: fire, water, earth and air. Our ancestors saw the display of the All-Unified Spirit in the Shining Sun, in the Stars and the Moon, etc.

"In Ukraine everything is inspired, everything has the gift of the World", — in such words our great ethnogra­pher, poet, composer and historian, Mykola Markevych, expressed penetration into the depth of the Ukrainian national culture. The World is the spiritual Sun of the Ukrainian traditional culture.

The World and the Sun are two primaries — spiritual life and bioenergy, with which our being is supplied and around which our weekdays and holidays turn since time immemorial. All great annual holidays are devoted to the Sun. Four of the greatest annual holidays of the Ukrainian annual ritual cycle correspond to the four positions of the Sun in its annual rotation of the Earth.

The first of our ancient annual holidays — the holiday of the Spring Sun, or the Great Day of World — Creation  (Easter) — was devoted to the spring equinox, and marital love and harmony in the family. Our farmer-ancestor cel­ebrated the beginning of the New farmer year and the origin of the World. After all, in spring, in accordance with Ukrainian mythic-religious tradition, the World and the First Man were born.

Easter is the happiest and most important Christian holiday. On Easter Christians celebrate their belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. "Resurrection" means "rising from the dead". "Crucifixion" means "being put to death on a cross". The Christian religion teaches that Jesus resurrection is a great victory over death. It brings new and everlasting life to all who believe in Jesus. The  word "Easter" probably comes from "Esotery", the name of an old goddess whose festival was in the spring. Easter is always in the spring. Chris­tians wanted Easter on Sunday since they believed Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Chris­tians were also slowly giving up the use of the Jewish calendar in favour of the Roman one. So in the year 325, Christians made a change. They decided on a formula for setting the date of Easter. Easter is the first Sunday following the first full moon in the spring.

III. The Week before Easter

Holy is the week before Easter. It begins on Palm Sun­day, another joyful day for Christians. On Palm Sunday, many churchgoers receive branches or leaves of palm trees. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week have no special names. Thursday is called Maundy (or Holy) Thursday. "Maundy" comes from a Latin word used in a hymn often sung on the Thursday of Holy Week. Maundy Thursday keeps the memory of the Last Supper when Jesus intro­duced Holy Communion. Jesus and his disciples — his closest followers — were all Jews and celebrated Passover. The Last Supper was a Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples.

  3.1. Palm Sunday 

The last Sunday before Easter (Palm Sunday) is called Willow Sunday (Verbna nedilya). On this day pussy-willow branches are blessed in the church. The people tap one another with these branches, repeating the wish: "Be as tall as the willow, as healthy as the water, and as rich as the earth". They also use the branches to drive the cattle to pasture for the first time, and then the father or eldest son thrusts his brunch into the earth for luck. The blessed pussy-willow branch was kept during the whole year and used as a remedy for all illnesses.

Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter Day. It com­memorates Jesus' last journey to Jerusalem, when people cut palm branches to spread on his path as he rode to the city. The palms remind Christians of Christ's triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. There, a few days before his death, he was hailed as a king. The joyous crowd who greeted him strewed "his path with palms".

 3.2. Pure (Chystyi) Week

The week before Easter, the Great Week (Holy Week), is called the White or Pure Week. During this time the ef­fort is made to finish all field work before Thursday, since from Thursday work is forbidden. In the evening of Pure (also called Great or Passion (Strasnyi) Thursday, the pas­sion (strasti) service is performed, after which the people return home with lighted candles. They believed it would protect the family and the house against wicked spirits and witches. Maundy Thursday, called "the Easter of the dead" in eastern Ukraine, is con­nected with the cult of the dead, who are believed to meet in the church on that night for the Divine Mass.

On Passion (Strastna) Friday — Good Friday - no work is done. In some localities, the Holy Shroud (plashchanytsia) is carried solemnly three times around the church and, after appropriate services, laid out for public veneration. Good Friday is the saddest day of the year for Christians. On Good Friday Christians remember the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Such a sad day is called "good" because of all the good that Jesus brought into the world.

Good Friday is the day when the women of the fam­ily bake paskha, Ukrainian Easter bread.

The day before Easter is Holy (or Low) Saturday. Churches have no services that day. Some drape their doors in a black cloth. The black represents the time Jesus spent in his tomb. On Saturday children paint Easter eggs to add to the Easter basket that blessed during the church service.

Easter is the principal spring festival, its rites are closely related to agriculture, to the remembrance of the dead, and to the marriage season; during their performance, praise is given, ritual songs are sung, and there is much well-wishing.

3.3. A Paschal cake (“Paska”)

A paschal cake ("paska"). The custom generally observed at Easter-time is baking a paschal cake called "paska". In different regions of Ukraine people have their traditional recipes of making Easter cakes as well as every hostess has got her personal secrets-either with soft cheese or raisins, or with vanilla or decorated.

Clean Thursday was the main day for baking the paska. Colored eggs and paska are the main Easter dishes. The word paska, derives from Paskha, the word for Easter, originating from Jewish Passover.

Paska is sweet bread, often made with raisins and icing and formed into the shape of a truncated cone. The shape symbolizes Calvary Hill in Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified.

Before the Russian Revolution, up to 40 recipes of pasky were known in Ukraine. Many of those have since been lost. Back then each household usually baked three kinds: yellow, white and black paska. Yellow, the largest and the most popular, was dedi­cated to the sun. The white, traditionally baked on Good Friday, was dedicated to the dead, the spirits of deceased relatives. The black one, baked on Satur­day, was dedicated to people and the earth. There was also red paska, red symbolizing the beauty of joy and life or in some regions of Ukraine, Jesus' blood and resurrection.

Various rituals accompanied the production pro­cess, from mixing the ingredients to kneading and rolling out the dough.

3.4. The “Krashanka” and “Pysanka”

The "krashanky" and "pysanky" are an old pre-Christian element and have an important role in the Easter rites. They are given as gifts or signs of affec­tion, and their shells are put in water for "the rakhmany" (peaceful souls); finally, they are placed on the graves of the dead or buried and the next day are taken out or given to the poor. Related to the ex­change of "krashanky" is the rite of sprinkling with water, which is still carried on in Western Ukraine on the second day of Easter (Wet Monday, Oblyvany Ponedilok); it's practised by young people splashing the girls with water.

Pysanka painting is a widely practised form of decorative art in Ukraine. The practice originated from the prehistoric Trypilian culture. According to the myth, it is the egg from which the world was once created. The egg is a symbol of transition from non-existence to existence, a symbol of life, rebirth, joy, the Sun: especially the Spring Sun, which brings warmth, light and the revival of nature that was locked in by frost like bird life in an eggshell. Ukrainian pysanky have a symbolic sig­nificance. They symbolise spring, renewed life, and resurrection and have thus become associated with the celebration of Easter. Today pysanky also appreciated as works of art. Archeological data show that religious rituals connected with bird eggs date back to the Bronze Age (III century BC).Egg shells were found in barrow burials of the cata­comb culture of the Mykolayiv area. Later religious eggs were made of stone or clay and were used as talismans or "oberigs" against bad fortune by women and children, which may explain why it is traditional today for Christian women and children to paint eggs.

 Pysanka can be made of various materials (bird eggs, stone, wood, or clay); can be decorated by various techniques: using a brush (malyovanka), by dying the egg (krashanka), by dripping hot wax on the egg (kapanka), or by scratching a design (driapanka).

Painted religious eggs made of clay (pysanka) belonged to findings of the X century, when Kyiv Rus had already adopted Christianity. Their colour is polychromatic: black, yellow, brown and sometimes white. Clay pysanka was popular on the whole territory of Kyiv Rus, but most often they could be met during excavations of towns and women-children's burials of Middle Podniprovya.

Today the pysanka can be regarded in symbolic terms as the soul of Ukraine. It incorporates the nation's idea of harmony, integrity, concord and order, representing the idea of the unity of earth and sky and the beauty of Ukraine through ornamental colours, lines and rhymes. As many Ukrainian and foreign scientists have written (the first known material about painted eggs was written by the German authors Richter in 1682 and Kober in 1690), pysanky carry coded information about our ancestors' world outlook in its symbols and signs (more than 100 of which exist), original magic formulas and exorcism-ad­dresses to gods and people. These signs have been passed down year in, year out, over the centuries almost without change. Now researchers are involved in finding, restor­ing and deciphering the ancient meanings of colours and patterns, when the pysanka, produced correctly, was a powerful universal talisman protecting a person from ill­ness, misfortune, betrayal and loss and created peace and harmony in the household. The creation of a pysanka was accompanied by definite rituals. For it to possess magic force it had to be painted in a particular way, at a set time with particular colours, painting materials, picture signs and special songs and prayers. It was an original sacrament with its own laws and requirements. Any diversion from the original process was condemned and considered a sin, because it meant that the pysanka lost its original healing and protective force.

Pysanky are not made to be eaten. They are given as gifts, exchanged with friends and
used as decorations all year round.                                                                              

How nice it is to have your Easter basket filled with pysanky decorated by you. As you exchange the pysanka with one another as a token of love and friendship, the significance becomes greater when you can beam with pride and say "I made them", for the egg carries considerable proof of the effort extended upon it, and therefore makes a cherished gift. 

IV. Easter Days

Easter is celebrated to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is a feast of joy and gladness that unites the entire community in common celebration. For three days the community celebrates to the sound of bells and to the singing of spring songs (vesnianky).

Easter begins with the Easter matins and high mass, during which the pasky (traditional Easter breads) and pysanky, krashanky (deco­rated or coloured Easter eggs) are blessed in the church. Butter, lard, cheese, roast suckling pigs, sausage, smoked meat 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). Girls gave their pysanky to boys. If a boy had a grudge against that girl, he gave her pysanka back to her or broke it.

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

During the Easter season in Ukraine the cult of the dead is observed. The dead are remembered on Maundy Thursday and also during the whole week after Easter. For the commemoration of the dead the people gather in the cemetery by the church, bringing with them a dish containing some food and liquor or wine, which they consume, leaving the rest at the graves.

Ascension is the fortieth day from Easter Day. It was on this day that Jesus ascended into Heaven. Ascension Day falls on Thursday. The Easter candle lit on Easter Day to mark the Resurrection is put out to mark Jesus' departure from Earth.

4.1. How Easter was celebrated in Ukraine many years ago

Traditionally, during the last week before Easter — Holy Week — many people ate just small portions of bread and water. But preparations for the holiday dinner helped them endure hunger.

Monday and Tuesday were cleaning and laundry days.

On Wednesday, women began to prepare dough for the traditional Easter pastry known as paska. Men smoked ham and made the kovbasy-sausages. Girls chose the best eggs for the krashanky and pysanky. The krashanky — hardboiled eggs dyed brilliant col­ors — were to be eaten. Pysanky - painted eggs de­signed with intricate patterns with the help of wax — were not to be eaten, but saved as gifts and believed to be lucky charms. They were given as gifts to boy­friends, godchildren and guests.

People tried to stay awake all night before Easter. Many went to church at night for the vespers, or came early the next morning to bless the food for Easter breakfast. It is still a tradition today to bring paska, eggs and meat to church to be blessed.

All food was placed in baskets, which the girls deco­rated with embroidered napkins and spring flowers.

A candle lit in church would be placed in the paska, and people would walk home carefully not to let it burn out. Some people walked several kilometers gingerly hold­ing their paska with the lighted candle on top.

Once at home, the family gathered around the table. The holiday breakfast started with a prayer and a traditional Easter greeting: "Khrystos voskres" (Jesus is risen). The answer is "Voistynno voskres" (Truly risen). After this greeting people hugged and kissed three times. This greeting was said all Sunday and for several more days if people hadn't greeted each other since Easter.

The first part of the meal was a slice of paska. Then people played navbytky, hitting their eggs to see whose is stronger. The one whose egg didn't crack won.

After the breakfast, children went outside and played navbytky with their friends. The winner got the loser's cracked egg.

The games lasted all day, and in the evening young men visited the girls' houses asking for pysankas. If he got one, it meant she liked him, and he was supposed to hire musicians and ask her for a dance.

On Easter Monday children visited their grand­parents, teachers and godparents and brought them paska and eggs. But a store of eggs and a paska was always kept until the next Sunday after Easter-Provody, when families went to cemeteries and left food at the graves.

While some of those traditions have fallen by the wayside, many Orthodox Ukrainians have started to incorporate the old customs in their modern Easter celebrations.

V. Conclusions

Easter is the principal spring festival, its rites are closely related to agriculture, to the remembrance of the dead, and to the marriage season; during their performance, praise is given, ritual songs are sung, and there is much good-wishing.

Easter is the feast of joy and gladness that unites the entire community in common celebration. For three days people celebrate it to the sounds of bells, and to the sing­ing of spring songs — "vesnyanky".

We must try to be in good relations with other people and in the meantime we should remember about the God's power. The core of our life is in Love to God. We should remember that Christ was suffering for our sins and he died for us on the cross. Our faith supports us and we must believe that only God will save our world. We should do our first steps to him. Being with God we shall always feel the spirit of love and friendship.

The Remembrance of Christ resurrection is in our hearts. Easter is a symbol of a new life. On this day we are ready to see the vital beauty of our world. On this day many people go to church to sanctify their food and to put candles for the future life.

People celebrate this festival for three days. They of­ten sing songs, which symbolize the birth of a new life and coming of spring.

We should support each other. The mutual understand­ing will make all our world safe!

     VI. References

1.    Aksan N. Easter in Ukraine. Газета “English” / Шкільний світ. – 2009, #13.

2.    Arkis R., Dodovets’ N. Ukrainian Folk Festivals. Газета “English” / Шкільний світ. – 2008, #7.

3.    Parasich L. The Ethnic World of Ukraine. Газета “English”/ Шкільний світ. – 2002, #16.

4.    Polons’ka N. How Easter was Celebrated in Ukrane many Years Ago. Газета “English”/ Шкільний світ. – 2002, #17.

5.    Volobuieva L. Easter in Ukraine. Газета “English”/ Шкільний світ. – 2005, #11.

6.    Zakharova L. Christ is Risen, and Life is Liberated! Газета “English” / Шкільний світ. – 2006, #11.

7.    The Internet Resources.