Easter Mysteries…Eggs-plained
Where did the Easter Bunny come from and what does it really have to do with Easter?
As Christian religion was blended with pagan religion to convert people more easily, the timing of the pagan festival of Eastre/Eostre coincided with the timing of the resurrection of Christ. Eastre, was the goddess of fertility, (the word ‘eastre’ meaning 'spring'). She was represented symbolically by the form of the hare or rabbit being an extremely fertile animal.
What about Easter Eggs?
Eggs are traditionally connected with rebirth, rejuvenation and immortality. The Greeks and Romans buried eggs in their tombs. Jews still present mourners on their return from the funeral of a relative with a dish of eggs as their first meal. Christianity took this ancient sign of rejoicing at rebirth and applied it to the Resurrection of Jesus.
Eggs were forbidden during Lent, making them extremely popular afterwards at Easter. In Slavic countries, baskets of food including eggs are traditionally taken to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday or before the Easter midnight Mass, then taken home for part of Easter breakfast.
Other European countries such as Poland and the Ukraine have a long tradition of decorating Easter eggs with intricate designs. The Russians are most famous for this. During the reign of the tsars, they celebrated Easter much more elaborately than Christmas, with quantities of decorated eggs given as gifts. The Russian royal family carried the custom to great lengths, giving exquisitely detailed jeweled eggs made by goldsmith Carl Faberge (1880's -1917).
In Germany and other countries of central Europe, eggs that are use to make Easter foods are not broken, but emptied out. The empty shells are then painted and decorated with bits of lace, cloth or ribbon, then hung with ribbons on an evergreen or small leafless tree. In fact the decorated tree is popular in other cultures: on the third Sunday before Easter, Moravian village girls used to carry a tree decorated with eggshells and flowers from house to house for good luck. The eggshell tree is also one of several Easter Traditions carried to America by German settlers especially those who became known as Pennsylvania Dutch. They also brought the fable that the Easter bunny delivered coloured eggs for good children.
Eggs-tremely Interesting facts about Easter:
Each year witnesses the making of nearly 90 million chocolate bunnies.
When it comes to eating of chocolate bunnies, it is the ears that are preferred to be eaten first by as many as 76% of people.
By tradition, it was obligatory (or at least lucky) for churchgoers to wear some bright new piece of clothing - at least an Easter bonnet, if not a complete new outfit.
The painting of eggs is traditionally called Pysanka by the Ukranians.
In medieval times a festival of egg-throwing was held in church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choir boys. It was then tossed from one choir boy to the next and whoever held the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg.
In Cyprus people play an Easter egg game in which each person takes a hard boiled, coloured egg and tap the ends of their eggs together. If your egg breaks you leave the game for the next person to try. The player left with an unbroken egg is the winner.
Americans consume 15 million jellybeans at Easter, many of them hidden in baskets. If all the Easter jellybeans were lined end to end, they would circle the globe nearly three times.
In Greece, people paint hard-boiled eggs red and bake them into sweet bread loaves on the Thursday before Easter. The red colour stands for the blood of Christ.
Reading detective novels and crime thrillers has become a popular Easter occurrence in Norway. Paaskekrim (Easter crime) refers to the new crime novels available at Easter. Professors at the University of Oslo believe the growing tradition of reading about crime at Easter stems from the violent nature of Christ's death.
Children in Guatemala go out onto the streets on Good Friday to remember Jesus' journey to the cross. People bang drums and let off fireworks. This starts at 5am and goes on until after midnight. Some people also dress as Roman soldiers and at 3pm, which was the time Jesus was put on the cross, everyone changes into black clothing.
Easter was called Pesach by early Christians. It is a Hebrew name for Passover. Today, the name for Easter in many cultures in Europe are similar to the word Pesah such as Paques in France, Pascha in Greece, Pask in Sweden and Pasqua in Italian.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest Easter egg ever was just over 25-ft high and made of chocolate and marshmallow. The egg weighed 8,968 lbs. and was supported by an internal steel frame.
Nathalie Kyrou © 2009. All rights reserved to the author.
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Showing posts with label tradition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tradition. Show all posts
Friday, 29 May 2009
FOOD UNCOVERED - The Power of Festive Food
The Power of Festive Food
With Christmas having just visited us, and the New Year on our doorstep, there is no better time than now for discovering and enjoying traditional Cypriot festive food. Almost every country has at least one special food that is eaten on New Year’s Eve, or in the first days after, that is supposed to bring luck, wealth or success in the coming year. The Cypriots follow the Greek tradition of eating “Vasilopitta” (a cake baked with a coin inside).
The story behind this is that the cake originated from the famously high taxes that the Ottoman Empire imposed on the Greek people during their long reign. It is believed that a Bishop of Greece, through some miracle, managed to recover a large portion of the Greek people's riches from the Ottoman's grasp. When he attempted to return the riches to their respective owners, however, fighting amongst the Greeks broke out! Saint Basil (the English name for Vassilis) asked the women to bake a large cake with the valuables inside – this way, when he sliced the cake, the valuables miraculously found their way back to their rightful owners!
Today, a cake is baked in honor of this miracle with one coin hidden inside it. Traditionally cut by the head of the family on New Year's Day, one slice of the cake is supposed to be for Jesus Christ, one for the house and one for absent family members. The person who bites into the piece of cake with the coin in it will be blessed with good luck for the coming year. Did you know that the Cypriot Santa is not Saint Nicholas, as the English know it, but Ayios (Saint) Vassilis? In Cyprus, Father Christmas visits people on New Years Day instead of Christmas Day, therefore it is tradition that presents are given and received on this day, which is also Ayios Vassilis’ Day.
One of the main concerns for the Greek Cypriot household is preparing bread for important religious and festive occasions. Throughout history, housewives used their skill and imagination to make different types of bread, baking each one with a symbolic meaning incorporated into it. The various perceptions, myths, prejudices and superstitions of their faith ended up in their breads, often to call good spirits and send evil ones away.
This Cypriot belief in evil spirits is also associated with the celebration of Epiphany on the 6th January, aka the “Feast of Light” (called “ta Phota” in Greek). It is on this day Christ was baptised in the River Jordan, symbolising the spiritual rebirth of man. On the eve of Epiphany, known as “kalanda”, people fast and then gather in church for the blessing of the waters, which are supposed to have held evil spirits for the past twelve days. After Mass, the priest visits all houses to cleanse them from the spirits or demons (known as “kalikandjiari”, they appear on Christmas Day and play evil tricks on people afterwards). On Epiphany Day, a celebration takes place at all seaside towns, where the Archbishop leads a procession down to the sea where a ceremonial baptism is performed. During the ceremony the leading priest throws the holy cross into the sea, and young men dive into the water to retrieve the cross, and return it to him. Now that is enough to work up a hunger!
For most Greek Cypriots faith plays an important role in their lives. The Greek Orthodox faith observes several fasts during the year, which means abstinence from foods derived from animals containing red blood, from dairy products, and at times even from olive oil, and wine. Foods that are allowed to be consumed during fast periods are called “nistisima”. With the Christmas Fast, which lasted from November 15th to December 24th, recently over, and the Great Lent Fast, which begins seven weeks before Easter, looming up ahead, now is the time to indulge in all those delicious Cypriot delicacies!
Why not dig in to leftover “christopsoma” (Christmas bread), “gennopittes”, Christmas “paximadia”, and “koulouria” (seasonal cookies), all of which are made across the island in various shapes and names according to local village tradition. In fact “koulouria” can be made in various forms: “vortakouthkia” meaning frogs, (which expresses the wish for rain to help farmers), “athropouthkia” which means little people (the Greek Cypriot tradition links them to dead peoples’ souls), and “zembilouthkia”, meaning baskets (an expression of the wish for the blessing of crops). In some villages, the “stavrokouloura” (koulouria in the shape of the cross) are hung on the walls during religious occasions. They form part of the festive decoration as well as a protecting force, as since ancient times, Greeks believed that wheat and wheat-related products would protect people from evil. Now there’s a great reason to get baking!
Nathalie Kyrou © 2009. All rights reserved to the author.
With Christmas having just visited us, and the New Year on our doorstep, there is no better time than now for discovering and enjoying traditional Cypriot festive food. Almost every country has at least one special food that is eaten on New Year’s Eve, or in the first days after, that is supposed to bring luck, wealth or success in the coming year. The Cypriots follow the Greek tradition of eating “Vasilopitta” (a cake baked with a coin inside).
The story behind this is that the cake originated from the famously high taxes that the Ottoman Empire imposed on the Greek people during their long reign. It is believed that a Bishop of Greece, through some miracle, managed to recover a large portion of the Greek people's riches from the Ottoman's grasp. When he attempted to return the riches to their respective owners, however, fighting amongst the Greeks broke out! Saint Basil (the English name for Vassilis) asked the women to bake a large cake with the valuables inside – this way, when he sliced the cake, the valuables miraculously found their way back to their rightful owners!
Today, a cake is baked in honor of this miracle with one coin hidden inside it. Traditionally cut by the head of the family on New Year's Day, one slice of the cake is supposed to be for Jesus Christ, one for the house and one for absent family members. The person who bites into the piece of cake with the coin in it will be blessed with good luck for the coming year. Did you know that the Cypriot Santa is not Saint Nicholas, as the English know it, but Ayios (Saint) Vassilis? In Cyprus, Father Christmas visits people on New Years Day instead of Christmas Day, therefore it is tradition that presents are given and received on this day, which is also Ayios Vassilis’ Day.
One of the main concerns for the Greek Cypriot household is preparing bread for important religious and festive occasions. Throughout history, housewives used their skill and imagination to make different types of bread, baking each one with a symbolic meaning incorporated into it. The various perceptions, myths, prejudices and superstitions of their faith ended up in their breads, often to call good spirits and send evil ones away.
This Cypriot belief in evil spirits is also associated with the celebration of Epiphany on the 6th January, aka the “Feast of Light” (called “ta Phota” in Greek). It is on this day Christ was baptised in the River Jordan, symbolising the spiritual rebirth of man. On the eve of Epiphany, known as “kalanda”, people fast and then gather in church for the blessing of the waters, which are supposed to have held evil spirits for the past twelve days. After Mass, the priest visits all houses to cleanse them from the spirits or demons (known as “kalikandjiari”, they appear on Christmas Day and play evil tricks on people afterwards). On Epiphany Day, a celebration takes place at all seaside towns, where the Archbishop leads a procession down to the sea where a ceremonial baptism is performed. During the ceremony the leading priest throws the holy cross into the sea, and young men dive into the water to retrieve the cross, and return it to him. Now that is enough to work up a hunger!
For most Greek Cypriots faith plays an important role in their lives. The Greek Orthodox faith observes several fasts during the year, which means abstinence from foods derived from animals containing red blood, from dairy products, and at times even from olive oil, and wine. Foods that are allowed to be consumed during fast periods are called “nistisima”. With the Christmas Fast, which lasted from November 15th to December 24th, recently over, and the Great Lent Fast, which begins seven weeks before Easter, looming up ahead, now is the time to indulge in all those delicious Cypriot delicacies!
Why not dig in to leftover “christopsoma” (Christmas bread), “gennopittes”, Christmas “paximadia”, and “koulouria” (seasonal cookies), all of which are made across the island in various shapes and names according to local village tradition. In fact “koulouria” can be made in various forms: “vortakouthkia” meaning frogs, (which expresses the wish for rain to help farmers), “athropouthkia” which means little people (the Greek Cypriot tradition links them to dead peoples’ souls), and “zembilouthkia”, meaning baskets (an expression of the wish for the blessing of crops). In some villages, the “stavrokouloura” (koulouria in the shape of the cross) are hung on the walls during religious occasions. They form part of the festive decoration as well as a protecting force, as since ancient times, Greeks believed that wheat and wheat-related products would protect people from evil. Now there’s a great reason to get baking!
Nathalie Kyrou © 2009. All rights reserved to the author.
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