Family Traditions: Easter

There are many traditions in families.  Just think about it a few minutes.  Maybe everyone gets together on New Year's Eve at so and so's house.  Maybe it's a certain kind of cake that someone makes for everyone's birthday.  Maybe it's a vacation spot that you go to year after year.

I don't think many people pay enough attention to traditions anymore.  Everyone is so busy and on the go that traditions get pushed to the wayside.  It is important to carry on the traditions of your family so when the younger generations come along they can relate to the older generations.  The traditions build good memories and feelings of family, connection, and love.

Today I'm going to talk about a couple of our Easter traditions.  First is bread.  On my Dad's side of the family, we make two types of Polish bread.  There's raisin and cheese.  The basic bread recipe is the same but the first one you put raisins in and the second one you roll out and put cream cheese spread (with sugar, vanilla and cream cheese) on it, roll it up and bake it.

On my Mom's side of the family, we have Paska, a traditional raisin bread, baked in a coffee can (or other cylinder pan), with or without saffron baked in, and with glaze on the top.  It is traditionally served with a cheese spread that, if done correctly, takes a couple of days to make.

Our second tradition is eggs.  My mother every year makes Pysanky.  These are the traditional decorative Easter eggs from our Russian heritage.  She only makes these during lent and every year we can't wait to see her new creations!  She has gotten very good at making them.

On my Dad's side, my grandmother every year serves hard boiled eggs, un-dyed.  I think this came about because someone asked her about Easter eggs and she just boiled up a dozen one year.  It's kind of funny because if we don't get our plain, boiled eggs, everyone asks about them (and she can't dye them either because it's now become a "tradition"!).

Last, but in no way the least, is family.  Easter is a time for celebration of life and the life after, the ressurection of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the love of family.  So in my family's tradition, both in English and in Russian:

Christ is Risen, Indeed He is Risen
Христос воскресе (Xristos voskrese) Christ resurrected
воистину воскресе (voistinu voskrese) truly resurrected
Be sure to click the links above to hear how to say the greeting and response!  (Use your back key in your browser to get back to this page!)