Due to its ability not to sleep the hare become a symbol of resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
Easter Eggs.
Wherever Easter is celebrated, there Easter eggs are usually to be
found. In their modern form, they are frequently artificial, mere
imitations of the real thing, made of chocolate or marzipan or sugar, or of
two pieces of coloured and decorated cardboard fitted together to make an
eggs-shaped case containing some small gift. These are the Easter eggs of
commerce, which now appear in shop-windows almost as soon as, and sometimes
even before, Ash Wednesday is past, and by so doing lose much of their
original festival significance.
This is a real egg, hard-boiled, died in bright colours, and sometimes
elaborately decorated. In still appears upon countless breakfast-tables on
Eater Day, or is hidden about the house and garden for the children to
find. In some European countries, including England, the Easter Hare is
said to bring the Easter eggs, and to conceal them in odd corners of the
gardens, stables, or outbuildings.
Because eggs are obvious symbols of continuing life and resurrection,
the pagan peoples of ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and Persia used them,
centuries before tile first Easter Day, at the great Spring Festivals, when
the revival of all things in Nature was celebrated.
Colouring and decorating the festival eggs seems to have been
customary since time immemorial. And old Polish legend says that Our Lady
herself painted eggs red, blue, and green to amuse the Infant Jesus, and
that since then all good polish mothers have done the same at Easter. A
Romanian tale says that the vivid red shade, which is a favorite almost
everywhere, represents the blood of Christ.
There are many ways of tinting and decorated the eggs, some simple and
some requiring a high degree of skill. They can be dipped into a prepared
dye or, more usually boiled in it, or they may be boiled inside a covering
of onion-peel. Ordinary commercial dyes are often used today for coloring,
but originally only natural ones, obtained from flowers, leaves, mosses,
bark, wood-chips, or other sources, were employed. In England, gorse-
blossom was commonly used for yellow, cochineal for scarlet, and logwood-
chips for a rich purple.
In Switzerland, minute flowers and leaves are sometimes laid on the
egg underneath the onion-peel to make a white flower-pattern on the yellow
or brown surface.
The decoration of Easter eggs is a traditional peasant art in Eastern
and Central Europe. Favorite designs vary in different regions. In Hungary,
red flower-patterns on a white ground are often seen; sometimes the
decorated eggs are fitted with tiny metal shoes, with minute spurs
attached, and curious little metal hangers. In Yugoslavia, the letters XV
usually form part of the design. They stand for Christos Vaskrese, meaning
‘Christ is risen’, which is the traditional Easter greeting of Easter
Europe. Russian eggs are sometimes elaborately decorated with miniature
picture of the saints, or of Our Lord. Polish designs are often
geometrical, or abstract, or they may include Christian symbols, like the
Gross or Fish, mixed with pagan emblems of new life. Painted eggs of this
type, know as pisanki, always appear on the Easter Table.
In some East European countries, scarlet eggs, as symbols of
resurrection, are placed on, or buried in, the graves of the family dead.
The latter custom was known in northern England until about the middle of
last century. One or two of the most beautifully ornamented Pace-eggs – the
name by which Easter eggs are still most commonly called in the northern
counties – would be saved and kept in tall ale – glasses in a corner
cupboard, or some other place where they could be easily seen. In Scotland,
Easter eggs are often called Peace or Paiss eggs. ‘Pace’ and ‘Paiss’ are
all corruptions of Pasch, or Paschal, of which the original root is the
Hebrew word pisach meaning Passover.
In parts of Germany during the early 1880s, Easter eggs substituted
for birth certificates. An egg was dyed a solid color, then a design, which
included the recipient’s name and birth date, was etched into the shell
with a needle or sharp tool. Such Easter eggs were honored in law courts as
evidence of identity and age.
Easter Bunny.
That a rabbit, or more accurately a hare, became a holiday symbol can be
traced to the origin of the word “Easter”. According to the Venerable Bede,
the English historian who lived from 672 to 735, the goddess Easter was
worshiped by the Anglo – Saxons through her earthly symbol, the hare.
The custom of the Easter hare came to America with the Germans who
immigrated to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
From Pennsylvania, they gradually spread out to Virginia, North and
South Carolina, Tennessee, New York, and Canada, taking their customs with
them. Most eighteenth – century Americans, however, were of more austere
religious denominations, such as Quaker, Presbyterian, and Puritan. They
virtually ignored such a seemingly frivolous symbol as a white rabbit. More
than a hundred years passed before this Teutonic Easter tradition began to
gain acceptance in America. In fact, it was not until after the Civil War,
with its Legacy of death and destruction, that the nation as a whole began
a widespread observance of Easter it self, led primarily by Presbyterians.
They viewed the story of resurrection as a source of inspiration and
renewed hope for the millions of bereaved Americans.
V. Thoughts from Ireland.
By tradition, Good Friday has always been a day of mourning and
fasting, for decorating churches with branches of yew (palm) and other
evergreens, and the ceremonial distribution of gifts to the poor.
Many Christians fast and attend services between noon and 3 p. m., the
hours Jesus is believed to have spent on the cross, since the day
commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus.
On Easter Sunday the churches are beautifully decorated with white
lilies. Joyful religious music is heard and sermons ring with hope.
Children and their parents traditionally attend church, usually wearing new
spring clothes. The mothers and their daughters wear colorful flowered
hats. Many other traditions and popular customs, which probably go back to
pagan times, are also associated with Easter throughout Europe, for
example, the sending of Easter cards and the giving of Easter eggs. Eggs
are a symbol of life and fertility or recreation of spring. It was not
however until the 19th century, that the practice of giving and exchanging
eggs at Easter was introduced in England.
Easter custom, the barrels are gratefully emptied by the participants.
In London there is Easter Parade in Battersea Park. What used to be merely
an occasion for sporting the latest fashions in the park on Easter Sunday
has now developed into one of the most spectacular carnival processions of
the year, with military bands, decorated floats, Easter Princess, and all.
Another thing English people traditionally eat at Easter is hot cross-
buns. One would hardly use them to cure whooping cough, but in bygone days
buns, which had been baked on Good Friday, were thought to have magical
healing powers. Because of the spices they contain, hot cross-buns seldom
go moldy, and even today country housewives hang a few from the kitchen
beams to dry. When needed, the buns can be powdered, mixed with milk or
water and given as a medicine. Of course, for the magic cure to work, they
have to be buns that were actually baked on Good Friday. For Easter dinners
at family reunions Englishmen traditionally eat baked ham or chicken with a
famous English apple-pie to follow/
For a good apple pie you will need:
1 lb apples (500 gm)
4 oz flour (100 gm)
2 oz butter or margarine (50 gm)
3 oz sugar (75 gm)
2 oz sultans (50 gm)
1 oz chopped nuts (25 gm)
1-teaspoon cinnamon.
Now you can make a real English apple – pie. Here are the
instructions. Put them in the correct order, and number the instructions 1
to 6:
Mix the nuts, sultanas, cinnamon and half the sugar with the apples.
Bake in a medium oven (300F) for 30 minutes. Peel and core the apples. Cut
them into small pieces and put them into a baking dish. Sieve the flour
into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples.
Rub the soft butter into the flour with your finger – tips. When the
butter melts, the mixture will look like bread – crumbs. Add the rest of
the sugar. And now serve the pie hot with cream. Enjoy it! And as Russians
say, Christ is risen! Expecting the answer, Christ is risen indeed!
VI. Easter in England.
Easter it is a time for the giving and receiving of presents which
traditionally take the form of an Easter egg and hot cross buns. The Easter
egg is by far the most popular emblem of Easter, but fluffy little chicks,
baby rabbits and spring time flowers like daffodils, dangling catkins and
the arum lily are also used to signify the Nature's awakening.
Nowadays Easter eggs are usually made of chocolate or marzipan or sugar.
True Easter eggs are hard-boiled, dyed in bright colours, and sometimes
elaborately decorated. Colouring and decorating the festival eggs seems to
have been customary since time immemorial They can be dipped into a
prepared dye or, more usually, boiled in it, or they may be boiled inside a
covering of onion peel Natural dyes are often used for coloring today. They
are obtained from flowers, leaves, mosses, bark, and wood-chips.
Egg-rolling is a traditional Easter pastime which still flourishes in
Britain. It takes place on Easter Sunday or Monday, and consists of rolling
coloured, hard-boiled eggs down a slope until they are cracked and broken
after which they are eaten by their owners. In some districts this is a
competitive game. But originally egg-rolling provided an opportunity for
divination. Each player marked his or her egg with an identifying sign and
then watched to see how it sped down the slope. If it reached the bottom
unscathed, the owner could expect good luck in the future, but if it was
broken, unfortune would follow before the year was out, Eating hot cross
buns at breakfast on Good Friday morning is a custom which is also
flourishing in most English households. Formerly, these round, cakes marked
with a cross, eaten hot, were made by housewives who rose at dawn; for the
purpose, or by local bakers who worked through the night to have them ready
for delivery to their customers in time for breakfast. There is an old
belief that the true Good Friday bun — that is, one made on the anniversary
itself — never goes moldy, if kept in a dry place. It was once also
supposed to have curative powers, especially for ailments like dysentery,
diarrhea, whooping cough, and the complaint known as "summer sickness".
Within living memory, it was still quite usual in country districts for a
few buns to be hung from the kitchen ceiling until, they are needed. When
illness came the bun was finely grated and mixed with milk or water, to
make a medicine, which the patient drank.
VIII. Easter in Ukraine and Russia.
In Ukrainian, Easter is called Velikden (The Great Day). It has been
celebrated over a long period of history and has many rich folk traditions
that are no longer fully preserved. The last Sunday before Easter (Palm
Sunday) is called Willow Sunday (Verbna nedilia). 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’.
The week before Easter, the Great Week (Holy Week), is called the
White or Pure Week. During this time an effort is made to finish all
fieldwork before Thursday, since from Thursday on work is forbidden. On 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. Maundy Thursday, called ‘the Eater of the dead’
in eastern Ukraine and Russia, 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 (Strasna) 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. 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 and krashanky (decorated or colored Easter eggs) are
blessed in the church. Butter, lard, cheese, roast-suckling pigs, sausage,
smoked meat, and little napkins containing poppy seeds, millet, salt,
pepper, and horseradish 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.
The pysanky and krashanky are an old pre-Christian element and have an
important role in the Eater rites. They are given as gifts or exchanged as
a sign 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 in graves and the next day are taken out and 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. During the Easter season in
Ukraine and Russia 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 (provody) 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.
Список литературы.
1. Газета “The English”, April №14/1996.
2. Газета “The English”, March №12/1997.
3. Газета “The English”, March №12/1995.
4. Газета “English Learner’s digest”, April, 1995.
5. Газета “English Learner’s digest”, April, 1997.
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