Traditionally, on every Easter we come home. Ukrainian Easter, or Velykden’ (literary translation: Big Day) is a holiday of family dinners, gift shopping and church visits, just like Christmas in the US. Since Easter in Ukraine is celebrated in quite a special way we’ve decided to tell you about traditions we love that much.

What is Easter in Ukraine?

Easter is the most important holiday for Orthodox Christians and is a bank holiday in Ukraine. A lot might be said about it, but to cut a long story short, Ukrainian Easter is a day when:

all Ukrainians (really, ALL of them, even atheists) go to churches;

the divine service is held the whole night long;

kids are allowed not to sleep the whole night;

in a random Ukrainian church you might hear the prayers in English, French, German, Greek, Belarusian, Arabic, Old Slavonic, Latin, Norwegian and so on (Easter is considered to be the holiday of Universe and in such a way we show solidarity with other countries). Of course, main language of prayers is still Ukrainian;

many people dress in ethnic clothes;

picnics are held all over the country;

in one day people eat more than in a month 🙂 .

When is Easter?

Orthodox Easter is calculated in accordance with lunisolar calendar as well as a Catholic one, but there is one rule: it must be later than Jewish Pesach and the same day or later than Catholic Easter. This year it was on April, 20th.

What do we eat?

The variety of Easter food is uncountable, but here is our shortlist:

Paska. It is a holiday bread, made by adding eggs and butter, tastes like very sweet pie without fillings.

Colored eggs or krashanka. Traditionally eggs are painted in red by boiling them with onion skin.

Kovbasa. Homemade pork sausage, delicious!

What do we wear?

There is no strict dress code, but many people try to dress in national clothes, with our favs being:

Vyshyvanka (embroidered shirt)

Plahta (a piece of hard fabric which is folded around woman’s waist like a skirt)

Zapaska (apron)

Kraika (belt)

Kersentka (waistcoat)

Vinok (wreath)

How do we celebrate?

As we have already mentioned, at first everyone goes to the church to spend a night there (Easter Eve), then in the morning the paskas are sanctified by a priest, and you are free to go to home to sleep, then a celebration with a family follows. There is also an option of coming to the church in the morning, if you cannot sacrifice your night sleep.

Any particular customs?

Egg tapping is the most common Easter game. The rules are simple: crash you opponent’s egg with your own. There are lots of strategies, but the best one is to come with the wooden egg instead of a real one (a.k.a. cheating).

Spring singing. In the past Easter was a day when singing season was officially started (it was strictly prohibited to sing during the Lent). Nowadays it is more for kids and their parents: kids gather to sing traditional spring songs (vesnianky) and their parents listen to them and cry of happiness.

Wet Monday. A day after Easter people come to the streets with buckets and bottles of water and try to pour it on anyone they see. Nowadays this tradition is preserved only in Western Ukraine. If you don’t want to get wet on this day (which is still cold in Ukraine), just don’t go outside!

Pysanka making. Pysanka is an Easter egg, decorated with Ukrainian folk design, using wax-resist method. Such eggs are usually quite expensive and are sold at Easter fairs. We even have museum of pysanka. 🙂

Do you like Easter as well? Excited to witness it in Ukraine?

Are there any particular traditions in your country? Share your experiences with us!