Easter mayhem

Now that Easter is over and done with, I though I would reflect a bit on the holiday here, since it's such an important part of the culture here.

Easter competes with New Years as the biggest holiday in Ukraine. In the States, Easter is primarily a religious holiday celebrated by religious people. Not so here. Everyone celebrates Easter, whether you really believe in Jesus and his resurrection or not. It’s a cultural thing, maybe like Christmas has become in the U.S. Protestants are a very small majority – the bulk of the population considers themselves Orthodox, although few are devout. Most attribute this to 70 years of atheist communism. Because of the Soviets, many people believe in nothing at all, but cling to religious rituals, specifically Orthodox, as part of their culture.

So with that framework in mind, picture the mob of people in stores that we associate with Christmas shopping. Chiara (MCC SALT worker) and I encountered such a mob on Saturday afternoon when we met at the local grocery store to pick up a few things and head back to DCU. There was not a shopping cart to be found in the rack at the front of the store, and a line of people stood at the entrance, waiting for shoppers to emerge from the cash register lines to hand over their carts. Once inside the store, there were crowds and lines in the produce and dairy areas, but the true mob was in the bakery section. Long lines of people snaked around the bakery counter, and over the heads I glimpsed frosting-topped bread with colored sprinkles being passed to those standing at the front of the line. All were purchasing the Easter necessity, paska. This sweet bread with raisins is baked in a can so it’s tall and skinny, and topped with white frosting and colored sprinkles. I also wanted a loaf or two for myself, so we stood in line for awhile. Suddenly I realized that the line stood still. Loaves were no longer being passed over the counter and everyone’s attention was fixed on the huge ovens behind the bakery employees. The paska supply had been exhausted and we were waiting for new loaves to bake. At this point I decided it wasn’t worth the wait and turned around to go. The woman behind me with whom I had been talking about the crazy lines gave me an incredulous look and asked if I wasn’t going to get some paska. As her wide eyes stared through me I mumbled something about maybe getting it later (or maybe never, I thought to myself). Such a thought apparently hadn’t crossed the minds of the 40 or so people patiently waiting for their loaves to bake. I don’t know how long they waited there, but Chiara and I made our way home without paska. I bought some the next day from a different grocery store but with its simple dusting of powdered sugar on top, it was significantly less pretty than the others I’d seen the day before. And kind of stale, but it made good toast.

The other Easter crowds we experienced were in church. On Sunday morning Chiara and I stopped by an Orthodox church on our way to the service at the Baptist church. In the Orthodox church, the Easter service begins on Saturday evening and continues through the night. In the wee hours of the morning (at the church we visited, 3:30 a.m.) the priest begins the blessings. People bring baskets full of paska, as well as other food which will be eaten later in the day, to be blessed with holy water. They encircle the outside of the church, open their baskets and wait for the priest with his bucket of water and paintbrush-like wand to sprinkle them and their food. Chiara and I just stood and watched for awhile. Then we went inside and watched some more, as people lit skinny beeswax candles and placed them in big brass candelabras in front of the icons. Piles of barely-burned candles sat behind the babuskas who are in charge of cleaning up wax and making sure no one starts a fire. They kept blowing out newly-lit candles and pulling them out of their holders to make way for new ones in the hands of a steady stream of people, many clutching four or five.

In our regular church there was less movement and busyness, but it was still an important day – the sanctuary filled to capacity before the service began and the walls were crowded with people who stood for the full two and a half hour service. People greeted each other saying, “Christ is Risen,” and replied, “He is risen indeed.” The congregation stood up and responded likewise whenever those words were spoken from the pulpit.

Happy Easter!

Laura