Everything You Didn't Know About Easter Celebrations in Ukraine

Why taste nine Easter breads, what to do on Easter night to guarantee marriage, and how to catch a witch in church—wise people from ancient times taught us all these things. But times have changed, and much has been forgotten. So let's recall these intriguing Easter traditions, omens, prohibitions, games, and fortune-telling.

Let's start with the fact that there are, so to speak, two Easters in the world—church and folk—and Ukraine is no exception, because, for example, Easter bunnies or the custom of pouring water over girls do not occur in any religious tradition.

With church Easter, there are no questions: this holiday of the Resurrection of Christ is celebrated throughout the Orthodox world with traditional church services. Folk Easter begins in every country where church Easter ends—with superstitions, games, omens, and fortune-telling. The church does not approve of all this, but centuries go by, and these traditions remain.

What are these Ukrainian Easter curiosities?

The Day of Joy Has Come!

The entire Easter week in Ukraine is a preparation for the holiday: cleaning up, preparing the black "Thursday" salt, painting and decorating eggs, baking Easter bread, and gathering an Easter basket for blessing.

After the festive liturgy, which takes place on the night from Saturday to Sunday, priests in churches proclaim "Christ is risen!", and the faithful respond: "Indeed He is risen!". After the service, a procession circles the church three times (no one should remain in the church during this, and the doors must be locked—a tradition we'll mention again later). It is said that during the church circling, angels take Christ out of the grave, and the saints emerge from icons and "kiss each other". Hence the tradition of thrice kissing on Easter. Then the priest begins the blessing of Easter baskets with ritual foods.

The Easter basket is a source of pride for housewives: it must be beautifully woven, used only for this one day, covered with a beautifully embroidered towel. But what should be in it? Oh, Ukrainians have no limits to their imagination. Traditionally, they put a bit of grain on the bottom, beans, sometimes potatoes. Then salt, horseradish (breaking horseradish stems is strictly forbidden, as horseradish symbolizes health—why would you "break" it?). They place cheese and butter (in some regions, they shape butter into lamb figures), a ring of sausage (but, heaven forbid, not blood sausage!), sometimes even a bottle of red wine, and on top—Easter bread, decorated eggs, and a candle inserted.

As for the salt, there are certain nuances. Nowadays, ordinary store-bought salt is used, but according to tradition, you should use black "Thursday" salt. This salt is prepared on Maundy Thursday. Salt (or salt with flour and herbs) is sprinkled on a dry frying pan and kept on a slow fire, stirring and reciting the Lord's Prayer until the salt turns black.

The blessing of the basket's contents should bring prosperity to the family and promote everything, the symbols of which lie under the towel. Therefore, sometimes people put something in the basket that a person dreams of— a toy car, a doll, or something related to their profession. The church categorically disapproves of this, but folk traditions, like water, always find a way...

With the blessed basket in hand, people rush home (sometimes even running, trying to outpace each other). According to folk belief, if you come home from church earlier than your neighbor, you will have a better year than them. Therefore, being in a small Ukrainian town or village and witnessing real sprint races among elderly women on Easter is only a matter of time.

The Easter basket had to be circled around the house three times—to ward off fire or other misfortunes in the home. Also, around the house, you need to sprinkle a little blessed salt, and in the stable, roll Easter eggs over the backs of domestic animals—to keep them healthy.

Amulets from the Easter Table

Photo: Easter bread (Paska) and Easter eggs (Pysanka), Source: Ukrinform

Traditionally, the Easter breakfast begins with a prayer. After the prayer, the head of the family divides the blessed egg into as many parts as there are people present at the table (keeping a separate portion for deceased relatives). Each person silently eats their portion, and then they proceed to enjoy the meat dishes—sausages, ham, aspic. The feast concludes with the Easter bread.

In some regions of Ukraine, the festive meal started with the Easter bread. First of all, they cut off the top: in villages, they gave it to cows to ensure abundant milk, or they kept it until the cow gave birth; city dwellers gave the top of the Easter bread to children or elderly relatives—for good health.

After the meal, it was customary not to drink water for as long as possible—this was believed to prevent thirst during field work, especially at harvest time.

Remnants of the blessed festive food were handled very carefully:

• In villages, crumbs of Easter bread and eggshells were either buried where "no foot walks" or sent downstream into the river.
• Bones from the blessed pig were buried in the fields "to ward off hail."
• Fish bones were ground into powder—"for colic relief."
• Salt was used as a remedy for cattle (blown into their eyes) and given to cows to improve their appetite.
• Blessed horseradish was used as a toothache remedy.
• Chickens were fed wheat to prevent magpies or crows from attacking them.
• Poppy seeds were sprinkled in cowsheds to prevent witches from milking the cows (because they need to gather this poppy first).

In the city, none of these traditions were followed, but blessed salt was kept as having healing properties, and crushed eggshells were added to the soil when repotting houseplants; other leftovers were buried under the nearest trees.

The little Easter food had "far-reaching" significance. According to superstition, to make your wishes come true, you had to taste a piece from nine different Easter breads in different households—relatives, godparents, friends.

Young girls on this day enhanced their beauty with an old tried-and-true method: they put a blessed red Easter egg in water and then used this water to wash their faces.

A woman who struggles to conceive must place an extra plate next to her with a piece of Easter bread saying, "Bread for the little ones!". After the meal, this piece was scattered for birds (but not domestic ones): if a heavenly bird pecks at the crumbs—expect a child this year.

"Egg Battles" for Children's Joy

Photo: Egg battle, Source: smak.ua

The egg, together with the Easter bread, is the most important attribute of the holiday. Therefore, decorating it took a lot of time. Painted eggs, scratched eggs—each region of the country could boast its own achievements in this folk art form. The brightest examples of Easter eggs ("pysanka" or "krashanka") can be seen at the Pysanka Museum in Kolomyia.

Overall, housewives dyed and still dye eggs using ancient recipes with natural dyes. For example, shades of red were obtained from onions, oak bark, rye, elderberries.

These eggs were usually gifted to children, which led to numerous games with Easter eggs. The most common games were "egg knocking" and "rolling eggs."

The classic game of "egg knocking" involves one player holding a painted egg with the sharp end up, while the other player strikes this egg with the sharp end of their own egg; whoever's egg breaks, loses it. There are variations where eggs are hit on the ends, but the essence of the game remains the same. In ancient times, the "Easter catch" in the form of eggs was quite a nice addition to the table.

Playing "egg knocking" requires skill and a steady hand: you need to strike at the center, where the shell is thickest, and hold the egg firmly in your hand without crushing it. And you must choose an egg with a strong shell for the game! Previously, there were tricks: making the egg from both ends—sharp and blunt— with barely noticeable needle pricks, blowing out the contents, then filling it with melted wax. Such an egg was called a "wax egg" and could not be broken like a regular egg. Therefore, playing with a "wax egg" was considered dishonest, and one could receive a smack on the head.

In "egg rolling," players roll eggs one after another from a sloping position, aiming to hit their partner's egg with their own. The rule is: the more hits you make, the more you win. Another version is whoever rolls their egg first to the obstacle wins.

In the past, this game was more popular than "egg knocking." Sometimes the phrase "playing egg rolling" is used to mean: trying to outsmart each other, showing only your own egg and not letting go of it, while taking others'.

Fortune-telling for Marriage and Fate

Photo: Swing rides (Goidalka), Source: Freepik

No matter how much the church fought against all kinds of fortune-telling, eradicating the tradition of predicting the future on major holidays is impossible, and Easter is no exception.

If someone wanted to learn a craft, they had to go to church on Easter Sunday. When the priest first says, "Christ is risen!", you quietly respond with: if you want to learn to sew – "needle in hand", to craft – "axe in hand", and for modern professions like programmer, designer, SMM specialist, you probably need to prepare in advance.

For girls to get married, during the church service on Easter, they had to say about themselves: "Christ is risen! Send me a bachelor!"

And to find out if a beloved has serious intentions, they fortune-told on Easter bread. On the night from Easter to Wet Monday, girls placed a plate with a piece of Easter bread under the bed and said before going to sleep:

"God's Easter, grant me a favor!

Let (the name of the beloved) come to eat Easter bread,

And lead me, young one, to the wedding!"

If the beloved appeared in a dream and tasted the bread, he would soon propose.

To find out what the year will bring by Easter, they did fortune-telling on Easter eggs like this: they divided the table with chalk into four parts, placed an object in each – a ring, a doll, a coin, a cross. They put a blessed egg in the center and spun it, saying: "Holy egg, spin and tell my fate!" Where the egg stopped with its sharp end – that's what to expect: marriage, children, wealth, or misfortune.

In western Ukraine, the tradition of pouring water on Easter Monday, also known as Wet Monday, is still preserved. Mostly, it's girls who get poured on, as boys not only adhere to the folk tradition of pouring water but also use the opportunity to tease in this way. The roots of this "pouring tradition" lie in the belief in the cleansing power of water.

Another interesting custom is swing rides. They make swings big and strong enough for adults and decorate them with herbs. This tradition dates back to pre-Christian times and is one of the favorite folk entertainments. With the advent of Christianity, like most pagan holidays, swinging adapted to Orthodox beliefs. Now it is considered obligatory for everyone—young and old—to swing on Easter to commemorate the fact that Judas the traitor hanged himself.

Magic "Between the Dead and the Living Worlds"

Photo: Ukrainian Witch

For three days, a festive service is held in the church. During this time, the altar gates are open—and there is a belief that the "gates" to heaven and hell are also open. Therefore, all unclean forces are activated and seek to gain strength from this holy source of energy.

Easter Sunday presents a rare opportunity to see, and if lucky, to tame a witch:

• When the caretaker opens the church, all witches come to kiss the lock so that it opens for them everywhere.

• When everyone leaves the church for the cross procession, witches try to stay inside the church—because that's where the "power" is that they crave.

• Witches try to pull on the priest's vestments or rub against them: if they fail, they lose their charms for the whole year.

Sometimes an old woman approaches you near the church and asks how many domes are on the church. You shouldn't answer definitively: according to old beliefs, whoever counts the domes forfeits years. Witches also use this method to "transfer" illnesses from one person to another.

But the openness of heaven and hell on Easter had, according to legends, something good about it. Surprisingly, it was considered lucky to die during Easter week because all souls in these days go to paradise: "By this day, God introduces all the dead into paradise."

Easter is a pure and beautiful combination of religious service and naive rituals and ancient beliefs. This age-old continuity of traditions creates a wonderful and inspiring atmosphere of life triumphing over death.