Following Great Lent, which lasted seven weeks, the time of breaking the fast comes. Easter cottage cheese, lush Easter cakes and colored eggs are indispensable guests on the Easter table. For believers, this is not just food, but also an important symbol.
Easter
Symbolizes Golgotha - the mountain on which Jesus was crucified. To prepare cottage cheese Easter, you will need a pasochka - a special shape in the form of a pyramid.
Kulich
When Jesus came to the disciples, he shared a meal with them. In memory of this, the apostles left the middle place at the table empty and placed a piece of bread in front of it - a symbol that the Teacher was always with them. From this custom, the tradition of leaving butter bread in the church developed. Kulich is a type of such bread. It is consecrated in the church and distributed to believers. The top of the Easter cake is supposed to be decorated with a cross, a crown of thorns, or the letters XB molded from dough, but never with a crucifix. After all, Easter cake is a symbol of Christ’s victory over death.
Eggs
According to one version, eggs painted red are a symbol of the drops of blood of the crucified Christ. But there is another legend. According to legend, after the death of Christ, seven Jews gathered for a feast. During the feast, one of them said that Jesus would rise on the third day. The owner of the house replied that he would believe it only if the eggs on the table turned red. At the same moment, the eggshell turned red.
Calendar
The last, most strict week of Lent is called Passion, in memory of the suffering that Jesus endured in the last days of his earthly life.
12.04.2015What do we remember first when we hear the word “Easter”? Easter cakes, painted eggs, red vestments of priests... And what other symbols are there associated with the triumph of the Light Christ's Resurrection?
One warm spring morning in a small provincial town, a little girl was sitting on a bench near the house and happily ate a piece of sweet Easter cake covered with icing and raisins. This happened in the mid-60s, and a teacher passing by began to shame the child: “Aren’t you ashamed?!” How can you, a Soviet person, the granddaughter of October, eat Easter cake? After all, Easter is not ours, it’s a church holiday!” “No,” the girl answered, “Easter is ours, a very good, bright and... (the girl took a long time to find the word) delicious holiday”¹.
A child's heart, not familiar with the peculiarities of the political system, felt the light and spiritual joy of the Resurrection of Christ. Since ancient times everything Orthodox people knew the heartfelt words of John Chrysostom, spoken on the Easter holiday: “Whoever is pious and God-loving, now enjoy this wonderful and joyful celebration!.. All enter into the joy of your Lord!.. Rich and poor, rejoice with each other; fasting and non-fasting, rejoice now!.. All enjoy the feast of faith, all accept the wealth of goodness!.. Christ has risen, and life triumphs!”²
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the basis of Christian doctrine. According to the words of the Apostle Paul: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, and our faith is also vain.”³ Easter is the oldest Christian holiday; it has many traditions and symbols. The liturgy is the center of church life, and therefore the holiday begins with a solemn night service. Divine service is a joyful “feast of faith,” when the soul of every Christian rejoices incomparably with any earthly feast. It has already become a tradition in Russia to bring the Holy Fire from Jerusalem. The priests solemnly carry it around the temples of the city and light candles and lamps from it. By this miracle, which occurs every year at the Holy Sepulcher, people are convinced that Christ is the True Life. Fire symbolizes the Light of God, enlightening all nations after Christ's Resurrection.
The color red, which is present in abundance in the temple, is also symbolic: red vestments of priests, red candles, red flowers, red ribbons, red scarves on the heads of women. Easter is red because red is the color of resurrection, the color of life and victory. The color red means that the world was saved at the cost of the blood of Christ.
The royal doors and deacon doors of the holy altar are not closed throughout Bright Week as a sign that the Lord, by His Resurrection, opened the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven for everyone. A lectern with an artos is placed near the Royal Doors. Artos is a tall bread on which a cross with a crown of thorns is depicted, but without the Savior. This symbolizes Christ's victory over death, His resurrection. Artos represents the bread that the Savior ate before the disciples as evidence of His Resurrection. Tradition also tells us that after the Ascension of Christ, the apostles left part of the bread at the meal, symbolically depicting His presence at the meal. During the procession of the cross, which takes place every day of this week, the artos is carried around the temple. On Bright Saturday after the liturgy, it is broken up and distributed to the believers.
On Easter, the Easter bell rings - the bell - sounds especially solemnly. Throughout Bright Week, anyone can climb the bell tower and ring in honor of the Resurrection of Christ. The ringing marks the triumph of the Church, glorifying the Conqueror of hell and death.
The celebration after the service continues at the festive meal. IN church tradition a rich Easter table is a symbol of joy. It is no coincidence that the Lord himself compared the Kingdom of God to a feast. A snow-white tablecloth is laid out on the festive table and beautiful dishes are placed. Fresh flowers, lit candles, and Easter compositions are used as decoration. Every housewife strives to make her table unique.
To further emphasize the symbolic meaning of the Easter meal, Christians traditionally prepare special dishes. The oldest of them is Easter cake. It is prepared in every family; in form and meaning it is similar to artos. Kulich is a rich, tall round bread with raisins and candied fruits, topped with powdered sugar or glaze. The meaning of Easter cake, which is always prepared from yeast dough, also consists in the fact that for Christians it replaces the Old Testament, unleavened bread. Symbolically, this means a transition from Old Testament to the New, especially since Christ Himself in one of the parables compared the Kingdom of God to leaven.
Another Christian Easter dish is Paskha - a sweet cottage cheese dish with sour cream, butter, vanilla and raisins. To prepare it, a beaker is used, which is usually made of wood by master carvers. It consists of four parts and, when assembled, resembles a truncated pyramid. Most often they cut out on pasochniki orthodox cross, the letters “ХВ” - “Christ is Risen”, a dove as an image of the Holy Spirit, floral patterns, bunches of grapes. These patterns stood out clearly at Easter when it was taken out of the mold and placed on a plate. Cottage cheese Easter is a symbol of the Holy Sepulcher. Easter is also considered a symbol of Easter fun and the sweetness of heavenly life, a prototype of the Kingdom of Heaven and those same milk rivers on the banks of the jelly banks that have always been the dream of the Russian peasant.
The third attribute of the Easter table is colored eggs. Church tradition tells that after the resurrection of Christ, His disciples spread the news everywhere that Christ had conquered death. Mary Magdalene came with this news to the Roman Emperor Tiberius himself and presented him with a gift chicken egg as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ. It was impossible to come to the emperor's court without gifts. Rich people usually brought precious things, but Mary had nothing, so she took one chicken egg with her as a gift. The emperor said that just as an egg does not turn from white to red, so the dead do not rise again. But after these words, the chicken egg he was holding turned red. The egg symbolizes the Resurrection of Christ, life and general resurrection of the dead. Just as a chick is born from an egg and begins to live a full life after being released from the shell, so people, by the power of Christ’s Resurrection, will be resurrected to a higher, immortal life. When we pick up a red egg, we proclaim our salvation.
For Easter, Christians paint eggs different colors, although red is considered the traditional color. Various natural dyes are used to color eggs: turmeric for yellow, beets - for pink, nettle leaves - for green, onion peels - for light brown. There is a tradition of christening with Easter eggs, breaking their different ends in turn.
Easter eggs also had “practical” uses - they were rolled on the ground to make it fertile, the egg was placed in the right hand of someone who died on Easter. There is a tradition of keeping several Easter eggs throughout the year.
Easter cake, Easter cottage cheese and painted eggs are placed at the head of the table. They are often placed on dishes with high pedestal legs so that they rise above the rest of the treat. The meal mainly includes meat snacks, hot dishes of meat and poultry, and a variety of baked goods.
It is customary to celebrate the first day with your family. The feast begins with the consumption of dishes consecrated in the church. Since ancient times, it was believed that the blessed Easter egg should be the first meal after a 40-day fast. Then they eat a piece of Easter cake and a spoonful of Easter cottage cheese. On a real Easter table there must be a lamb made of butter dough, which symbolizes the Lamb of God slain for the sins of people, that is, Christ. In the Old Testament, according to Jewish custom, a lamb was slaughtered on Passover, but Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice, so there was no need for bloody sacrifices.
They try to finish preparing Easter dishes on Maundy Thursday, so that nothing distracts from the services of Good Friday - the day of the removal of the Holy Shroud. For the biggest holiday of the year, the house, of course, should be cleaned. Or rather, not just for Easter, but for Maundy Thursday; it is not without reason that people also call it Maundy Thursday. In the old days, on this day, juniper branches were collected and burned, and all rooms, including the barn and barn, were fumigated with smoke. It was believed that the healing juniper smoke protected humans and livestock from diseases. It is on this day that you are also supposed to paint eggs, make Easter cottage cheese, and knead Easter cake dough. Clean Thursday for housewives is one of the most troublesome days of the year.
On Holy Saturday everyone goes to church to bless Easter cakes, Easter cakes and eggs. To do this, they usually put all the food in a basket decorated with flowers. This day is already filled with a pre-holiday mood; churches are gradually beginning to be transformed for the holiday. A little more and Easter Matins will begin.
On Easter, Orthodox people go to visit each other and give each other small gifts. Usually this is some kind of treat: a small cake, an egg or sweets. Thus, believers share a piece of their joy, in the exchange of treats they symbolically unite in a large invisible meal. It is a good tradition to give an Easter egg when exchanging Easter greetings. It can be dyed boiled egg, or maybe artificial - made of wood, porcelain, papier-mâché or polystyrene foam. They are embroidered with beads, decorated with drawings, fabric, and embroidery. This egg is the most common gift. Some of them resemble works of art - they are decorated precious stones, gold and silver. Particularly beautiful ones - real precious masterpieces - are kept in various museums.
Easter bouquets play an important role. These are bouquets for gifts and bouquets for decorating Easter cakes. They are made up of flowers, feathers, ribbons, shells, willows, figurines of lambs, images of various birds and butterflies. IN recent years“Nest” bouquets have become very popular. They are assembled on a frame of branches that resembles a bird's nest. A bouquet for an Easter cake is usually small in size; it is assembled on a wooden pin, with the help of which it is then attached to the Easter cake. You can also make an Easter wreath - tabletop, wall or hanging. It can be placed around the Easter cake on festive table or make it an interior decoration, and, if desired, use it as an Easter gift. Wreaths are made from the same elements as bouquets. They symbolize infinity and eternal life given by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Since the last third of the 19th century in Russia, it has become traditional to send open letters with colorful drawings on Easter to those relatives and friends with whom you cannot share Christ, the main theme of which is Easter eggs, Easter cakes, Orthodox churches, Christ-bearing people, Russian spring landscapes, flowers. You can make Easter cards yourself, fortunately, there are many opportunities for this now. This option will always be nicer and warmer for the recipient.
On Easter, mass celebrations are held almost everywhere with singing, round dances, fairs, games and other entertainment. Previously, Easter festivities lasted up to two weeks and were called Red Hill. A favorite Easter pastime was rolling Easter eggs. They simply rolled eggs from some hillock or made special trays for this. When a rolling egg hits an egg on the ground, the player takes the egg for himself. These funs sometimes turned into real competitions.
Let's start from afar. We know that on the Feast of the Transfiguration, earthly fruits are sanctified, first of all, grapes, apples, etc. Why? To make these apples and grapes holier? Of course not. Let's think about it. We bring to God the fruits that the Lord gave us to grow, right? Man plants, but God grows. And we bring these fruits to Him, dedicate them to Him, and then we accept it from Him as the joy of a holiday, as a kind of blessing from God for our life’s labors.
Kulich is a semblance of church artos - large bread with the image of a cross with a crown of thorns (as a sign of Christ's victory over death) or the image of the Resurrection. It is one of the most ancient symbols of the Resurrection of Christ (the apostles at meals left the middle place at the table empty and put bread intended for Jesus on it). During the celebration of Easter, the artos is carried in a procession around the temple and left on a special table, following the example of the apostles, and on Saturday of Bright Week, after the blessing, it is distributed to believers.
Kulich is the home equivalent of artos. Yeast is used to prepare it. Kulich replaces unleavened bread from the Old Testament. For this reason, leavened Easter cake is a symbol of the replacement of the Old Testament with the New.
The consecration of Easter cakes is in a sense a symbolic rite. The transition to another food is generally sanctified - from fasting to fasting. The missal does not say anything specifically about Easter cakes.
But it seems to me that for a church person, it is somehow very natural for my food, especially on Easter day, to become not just my personal matter: now I’m going to eat a sandwich with cheese, finally! - and so that it becomes something that connects me with what I, as a Christian, consider to be the most important joy and meaning of my life, and with the life of the entire Church, which eats precisely these dishes on this day on Easter morning.
Food for religious consciousness is more than just food. It is also a sign of expression of a certain community. In this case, community with the Church.
It is known that in ancient times people brought prosphora to church, which they baked themselves, and they were used in worship to celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist. But this is bread that is used in worship, this is an offering to God. But our life passes not only in the temple, but also at home and at work.
In church we rejoice and partake of the Heavenly Bread - the Body and Blood of Christ, we accept Christ into our hearts and into our body. This joy concerns both our souls and our bodies. Therefore, it is quite natural to have a festive meal on the days of great holidays. And on Easter we are not interested in the abundance of different delicacies on the table. Whether there are such or not is not important. The question is different.
Look, bread is symbolic - this is the product without which a person could not exist: “Give us this day our daily bread...” In the ancient world, bread was always a symbol of life and nutrition. But we receive bread from God: He grows grains, and we use them. And Easter cake is not just bread for our nutrition, but the bread of the joy of the holiday, which we eat at home, during agape, a festive home meal. We make this bread rich and beautiful, because it is bread greatest holiday. Decorated Easter cakes, sweet Easter cottage cheese, painted eggs - it is clear that all this is sanctified by prayer...
Kulich has been traditional since ancient times, as have colored eggs and Easter cottage cheese, which may have a different name in different places. Yes, and Easter cake is called differently in some places. For example, in Ukraine, Easter cake is called Easter, and cottage cheese Easter is called cheese Easter. But the meaning in using them is the same - it is a reflection of our joy.
In the first centuries of Christianity, people celebrated the Liturgy, prayed, received communion, and then agape began - the supper of love, at which they gathered after the holiday, sat at the table, ate food in joy and joy. Now our festive Easter meals are a continuation of the holiday at the table, at home and in the family. So Easter cake can well be called the bread of joy - joy brought from God into our earthly life.
Why do we still consecrate Easter foods? So that God's blessing may rest on our food and on us. And first of all, we sanctify the food, sprinkle it with holy water to sanctify our meal.
The egg is very symbolic because, on the one hand, it contains a life that has not yet been revealed. But, on the other hand, the egg and the symbol of the Resurrection are like Christ lying in the tomb, who cannot be contained by the tomb cave, and He comes out. This meal is consecrated by thousands of years of tradition. It exists in all Christian countries, although in different countries forms may vary.
According to legend, Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene presented the first Easter egg to the Roman Emperor Tiberius. When Mary came to Tiberius and announced the Resurrection of Christ, the emperor said that this was as impossible as the fact that a chicken egg would be red, and after these words the chicken egg he was holding became red.
Easter cakes, eggs and Easter eggs are blessed in churches. It happens that the church is very crowded, there are a lot of people, then the consecration takes place on the street. The tables are set up, the priest comes by and sprinkles the food brought with holy water. But, of course, if there is such an opportunity, it is very good when the consecration of Easter cakes and other things takes place in the church, and not just people coming to the church and consecrating them. Why? Because it is much better if people come not just to sprinkle testicles, but to God, to the temple, asking for His blessing.
They came, took a candle, entered the temple, and lit it. Here is a Easter cake with a candle. What does this mean? Prayerful offering to God. Here is the Shroud, which stands in the middle of the temple. People prayerfully venerate the image of the dead Christ, Who died for our sins and Who will then Resurrect, whose Resurrection we will celebrate.
After this, they approach the priest, and their offerings and themselves are sprinkled.
What happens: people came to the temple with prayer, venerated the shrine, and appeared before the throne of God with their gifts that needed to be consecrated. People of little church, consecrating their Easter cakes in this way, to some extent join their hearts to the shrine, because few people who are indifferent will approach the image of the deceased Christ. And it is very good if the church has the opportunity to conduct consecration in this way. In our church we try to follow exactly this path.
If we want Easter joy to touch children, then children should participate in the preparation of Easter, including prayer: both in the Easter service and in the festive Easter meal. Therefore, this is very necessary and important and very useful for children.
O. Boris Balashov
We invariably associate the approaching Easter holiday with Easter cake. Tall, rich, topped with sweet fudge. It is precisely these Easter cakes that are worn today to be blessed in church on Holy Saturday. But the question is: have they always been like this?
One could think about this, even based on a simple consideration. Today's lace baking is not such an ancient conquest of culinary practice. It is clear that several centuries ago Russian pastries could not have been like this. Yes, Easter cake has always been a holiday product, made from wheat flour (expensive and not very accessible). But in taste, most likely, it then resembled its “close relative” - kalach.
By the way, this consonance is perhaps accidental. After all, the word “kalach” is a derivative of the Slavic “kolo” (circle, wheel, ring). The letter "a" appeared as a result of the fall of reduced vowels and the consolidation of "akanya" in the letter. And “Kulich” comes from the Greek κουλλίκι(ον) and κόλλιξ, which means “round or oval-shaped bread.” Which, however, does not negate the hypothesis that both of these names come from an older word form meaning “round”.
But what was that old Easter cake like? After all, you must agree, it is difficult to imagine that in a peasant hut, even at the beginningXIX centuries there were special molds (clay, copper?) for baking this product. Of course there were none. But it is quite possible to restore the appearance of that Easter cake. Let's try to unravel this culinary mystery.
Cook books, old dictionaries, and paintings by Russian artists will help us with this.
Absence of domestic cookbooks until the endXVIIIcentury does not allow one to understand the intricacies of the recipe. However, it is obvious that even 200 years ago, Easter cake in Russia was baked without a mold. It was a hearth, i.e. cooked either on the “hearth” in the oven or on a baking sheet. This type of Easter cake has been preserved for a long time. Actually still in the first halfXXcenturies in villages they often baked it this way.
And already in the centuryXIXHearth cake is mentioned even in the most famous cookbooks. Here, for example, is “St. Petersburg Cuisine” by Ignatius Radetsky (1862). Please note - “roll out the dough... place it on a lampshade layered with oil”:
The word "plafond" is somewhat alarming. Maybe this is today's cake pan? However, no. As he tells us Historical Dictionary Gallicisms of the Russian language (M., 2010), “ lampshade" is "outdated, cool. Large metal plate for frying in the oven". There is also a link to Radetzky’s “Gastronomic Almanac”: “ Below the shelves there are walls all around<кухни>tables with footrests, lampshades, baking trays, sheets, etc. are placed on the footrests"(Radetzky 1852 1 p. IX).
Hearth cakes remain not only in books. We find their images in the paintings of those years. Did you notice the top illustration? This is a painting by Nikolai Pimonenko, “Easter Matins in Little Russia,” painted in 1891. Now let’s take a closer look at its fragment:
Isn’t it true that it doesn’t at all resemble today’s Easter cake? Someone will say: “Well, this is Little Russia; in Russia it was not at all like that.” And he will be wrong. Since Vladimir Makovsky’s canvas “Prayer for Easter” (1887), already written based on Russian reality, only confirms the general rule.
Let's pay attention to a fragment of this picture. Eggs and hearth cake:
Or another example:
Zhuravlev F.S. Easter treat (before 1901)
And here is the beginning of the Easter cardXXcentury. What is on the table next to the colored eggs? That's right - hearth cake:
This tradition did not die with us even later. When, it would seem, there were no more problems with the Easter cake molds. Here is a painting by the artist Ivan Vladimirov (1869-1947). This isn't a loaf of bread surrounded by Easter eggs, is it?
Vladimirov I. From Matins
Unlike today's Easter cake, the dough of the hearth cake was denser and not “lacey”.And if Radetsky describes it in elegant cuisine, then, say, P. Andreev gives its recipe in his book “Cheap Russian Table” (St. Petersburg, 1898), talking about a completely “democratic” menu for the poor public:
But when did the Easter cake take on its present form? The answer to this question will not be easy. Because this process was lengthy in our kitchen. First, let's try to figure out what other baked goods reminds us of today's festive tall cake? That's right - baba, babka (she is often called baba). This is in Soviet times Rum-baba was small bun with raisins that fits in the palm of your hand. And in its classic form, it is a product quite comparable to Easter cake.
And it leads its biography fromXVIIIcentury. It is believed that it was the cook of the deposed Polish king Stanislaw Leszczynski, Nicolas Storer, who brought the “baba” recipe to France in the 1720s. A connoisseur of good cuisine, Leszczynski once dipped Alsatian kouglof (which seemed dry to him) in wine. The result impressed him. And the new dessert was named after the king’s favorite hero, Ali Baba. The version with this name, although described in the literature, is not a fact that it is reliable. After all, the word “baba” or “grandmother” is found in both Russian and Ukrainian cuisine and has nothing to do with Ali Baba. But after many years it is no longer possible to verify this.
Today's baba from Pâtisserie Stohrer in Paris
(photo by Helia Delerins)
So, by order of Leshchinsky, the royal chef Storer improved the recipe - he began to use brioche dough with the addition of raisins to prepare baba. This baba brioche was baked with saffron, soaked in malaga and served with pastry cream, raisins and fresh grapes.
The famous gastronome Frenchman Brillat-Savarin improved the dish several decades later. From under his skillful hands came the “Baba Au Rhum” we know. He came up with a special rum syrup that he soaked baba with instead of wine, and called his treat “Baba Au Savarin”. The dessert gained great popularity in France, but the name that stuck is what we still know today - baba.
Pretty soon, with foreign chefs, rum-baba penetrates into Russia. You can read about it for the first time in the “Dictionary of Cooking, Henchman, Candidate and Distiller,” published in 1795. And towards the middleXIX century - this is already quite a familiar dessert on the Russian table. Although the memory of its origin was carefully preserved. For example, in “Petersburg Kitchen” by Ignatius Radetzky, published in 1862, the recipe is called “King Stanislav’s woman”:
Having established itself among the Russian public, this dish began to expand its borders. And it naturally came into conflict with the old Easter cake. The logic of this process is clear. After all, people have always strived to make Easter cake as festive, rich, and savory as possible. For this purpose, eggs, sugar, and dried fruits were added there, and selected wheat flour was used. We achieved softness and baking. And then this “woman” appears. Here it is, it would seem, the ideal of the most elegant Easter cake, and even soaked in wine and rum. This is how one dish was gradually “replaced” with another, and often a parallel existence took place. First in wealthy homes with elegant kitchens. And then these tall shaped cakes began to be sold.
Rum baba (photo from the book of Soviet confectioner Robert Kengis, 1981)
Soviet life only consolidated this process. It is clear that in cities it was difficult to bake hearth cakes in communal kitchens. Actually, at one time the word “Kulich” in the USSR became not entirely compatible with the “Soviet way of life.” Cupcake is a replacement for this ancient dish. Without a religious connotation, this pastry has captivated domestic housewives. Although with some skill it was quite reminiscent of a traditional Easter cake. And the “Maisky” cake produced by Soviet bakeries completely completed this evolution of the old dish. It was no coincidence that he was called that. Because it appeared in stores in the spring around Easter, and disappeared soon after. This proletarian alternative was supposed to defeat the church cake. It didn't work out.
