Easter Dialogue and Easter Baskets
I went to a Byzantine rite Easter Sunday liturgy several years ago, and they spoke Slovak (I think…) I learned this little dialogue they do in the East during Eastertime: you go up to someone and say “Christos voskresy!” And they respond, “Voistinue voskresy!”
In English, this is, “Christ is risen!” and the response, “He is risen indeed!”
I also learned about where the tradition of the Easter basket comes from. In the East, everyone coming to Divine Liturgy on Easter morning would bring a basket containing all the foods and other things they gave up for Lent–meat, dairy products, sweets, wine, etc. After Liturgy, the priest would bless all the baskets and then everyone would go off for their Easter feast.
I tried to explain this once to some super-Protestants (the kind who boycot not only Halloween but all the accoutrements of every Christian holiday: no Christmas tree, no Easter baskets, etc.) Even when I told them the Christian origins of the Easter baskets, they still said they would not take part in that custom. Oh well. My children and I enjoy this tradition even more now that we know it’s not just a secular thing. One year one of my children gave up potato chips, so she got a massive bag of Ruffles in her basket. This year two of my children gave up meat on more than just Fridays (I think they were trying to do it Monday and Wednesday also) so they got bags of beef jerky in their baskets this year.
Happy Easter to all!
I suppose it depends what Easter basket you mean. I am Polish and my family creates an entire basket full of symbolic foods. It’s actually based on the collection of foods that the Jewish prepare each Passover but with slightly different meanings attached. There are really beautiful painted or dyed eggs (symbolising re-birth), bread (Christ as the bread of life), horseradish (symbolic of Jesus’ suffering), butter and sausages/ham (this one’s a little cryptic, I think it symbolises God’s generous nature), smoked bacon (apparently to symbolise God’s mercy and generosity, I think it’s just a Polish love of meat), salt (necessary element to life ’salt of the earth’ or as Dad mentions salt also wards the evil spirits away), cheese (symbol of moderation) and holy water as well as a couple of sprigs of greenery to recognise the rebirth of spring (I tend to dislike the idea of spring in Easter, Easter’s in autumn in my hemisphere).
These foods are taken to church on Holy Saturday and blessed by a priest and they are eaten the following morning.