THE THINGS WE DO...: About those Easter baskets (04/23/00)

THE THINGS WE DO...

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

About those Easter baskets

So how and when - and why - do you bless your Easter basket? Even if you do not attend church regularly, but are Ukrainian, chances are you and your family will be taking a basket of food to church to be blessed. Whether on Easter Sunday morning or Easter Saturday depends on the parish, local traditions and, usually, whether you are Ukrainian Catholic or Orthodox.

The "how" is generally the same, while the "why" is customarily explained as "because" - because this is tradition, and we have always done this for Easter, and it would not be the same without it.

I was remembering the first time I had a basket blessed in Winnipeg after moving here via North Dakota from New Jersey (long story, some other time). It was on Easter Saturday, in the afternoon, and streams of people were carrying baskets towards the church. But what surprised me is that they were going into the church itself, instead of the church hall below. It was a beautiful site: all the baskets were lined up along the pews, so that there was this double row of embroidery, breads, pysanky and glowing candles from the back of the church up to the tetrapod. The same rows repeated along the side aisles of the church. The priest, with the diak (cantor) and the altar boys, walked up and down the aisles, sprinkling the baskets and the people with holy water, as everyone sang "Khrystos Voskres!"

Back at St. John the Baptist Parish in Newark, we took the baskets into the church hall and placed them on long tables. The blessing took place in the hall, also on Easter Saturday afternoon.

In both cities there was this glaring incongruity since this was Easter Saturday, the day before Easter, the plaschanytsia (the Holy Shroud) was displayed in the church. In Newark people would go upstairs to visit the plaschanytsia before or after the blessing of the baskets. In Winnipeg, you place your basket at your pew, and then go up to kiss the plaschanytsia. Then you sing "Khrystos Voskres!" (Christ is Risen) as the baskets are blessed. But you come back the next day, on Easter, for the real "Khrystos Voskres!"

So how did we get to this and, in North America, far removed from Ukraine, why - as the name of this column asks - do we do what we do? I am fortunate to belong to an amazing group of people on the Internet, the Folkarts group (will tell you about this in a future column). I surveyed the members, asking how, where and when they bless their baskets, how they are decorated and other details. From the replies received, we see that traditions continue and evolve, and that everything old is new again. What was interesting for me was that none of the respondents mentioned whether the parish was Catholic or Orthodox, as if either this were a given, or did not matter.

The constant is that Ukrainians bless baskets at Eastertime, the foods blessed are the same all over, and then Easter morning, after the Resurrection liturgy, the family gathers for a special breakfast, roz-hoviny.

What is different is that in most Ukrainian Catholic parishes, except for the new very traditional ones, the blessings take place on Easter Saturday, in shifts. In Winnipeg it is usually between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., every hour on the hour. You have to come a good 15 to 20 minutes before the hour, as the other shift of folks is leaving, because the church is packed with people (some of whom have not been in church since the last Easter Saturday). I have not had anyone explain when the Saturday blessings first started, but it must have been for convenience.

Lubomyr Onyshkevych of Lawrenceville, N.J., and Dora Horbachevsky of Philadelphia reminded me of a tradition from the 1950s, when the priest would come to your home on Easter Saturday to bless the food. But this custom must have fallen by the wayside when, with the number of parishioners, the poor pastor would still have been blessing into Providna Nedilia the next Sunday.

Ukrainian Orthodox parishes usually begin their Resurrection liturgies at midnight, and bless the baskets afterwards. From Houston I received two replies, both from women who were not native Texans, Larisa Streeter from Argentina via California, and Olia Holowka Palmer, originally from Cleveland (who says she is "grateful that in Houston she never has to wear her winter coat over her Easter outfit." Oh, Olia, and what do we do in Winnipeg on an early Easter?)

Ms. Streeter writes: "When we get to church on Saturday night (before midnight), we all place our baskets on the table in the church hall. Liturgy starts at about midnight. We've always had our Velykden service at midnight, both in the United States and in Argentina. Used to be everybody went home after the blessing to roz-hovliatysia [i.e., break the fast]. Our family still does that. However, because many people at our church live so far away, for the last several years the roz-hovliania has taken place in the church hall immediately after the blessing of the baskets. The atmosphere is very friendly, happy and sharing, with everyone exchanging chunks of home-made or store-bought kovbasa, having 'egg-wars' and pouring a glass of wine for their neighbors. People don't go home until 5 or 6 in the morning."

I am guessing that Ms. Streeter's parish is Orthodox, while Olia's is Catholic.

Ms. Palmer writes: "'Here' in Houston, where a small parish celebrates one Easter Sunday liturgy and then blesses baskets afterwards, almost invariably outdoors, and with the expected prayers in the usual traditional fashion - depending on the priest's inclination and the circumstances of the parish - the community meal has been held after the blessing, or a week later, or two to three weeks later. I grew up in Cleveland in the 1950-1960s. Each year of my childhood (that I remember) Easter baskets were blessed on Saturday, in two shifts, each one packed with people. There were the usual prayers, songs, hahilky, games, etc., but it all took place on Saturday. The explanation I always got (because, of course, it isn't logical to do this on Saturday, and I seem to have asked about it several years running) was that there were too many people to do this on Easter Sunday after every liturgy. Even on Easter Sunday the parish had more than one, so the problem was that blessing the baskets after sunrise services would interfere with the next liturgy."

Mr. Onyshkevych sure doesn't mince words: "Blessing the baskets on Saturday is ridiculous and certainly not traditional. How can you sing 'Khrystos Voskres!' if the Bozhyi Hrib [Christ's Tomb, i.e., the shroud] is still out in the church?"

He continues: "In the churches where we go (the old-calendar churches in Philadelphia, and now in Maryland with our children) they bless the pasky on Sunday, after the services. The blessing takes place preferably outdoors (unless it's raining hard). All people stand in a circle, with the baskets on the ground. A candle is lit in each basket. The baskets are very colorful, with embroidered rushnyky, pysanky, krashanky, etc. Children and most women, and even some men, are dressed in folk costumes (embroidered shirts, keptari - vests). The priest comes out, with altar boys carrying crosses, incense and candles. He blesses the baskets in a solemn ceremony and then goes around sprinkling holy water on the baskets and people, letting people kiss the cross. All the time, everybody is singing "Khrystos Voskres!" on various melodies (there are at least a dozen). After that there are usually vesnianky and hahilky, and children's games. All very spectacular, joyous - the women vie who will have the prettiest basket and the most magnificent babka.

"The most memorable Easter of this type in my life was in 1992 in Philadelphia. The independence of Ukraine was brand new and the feeling of tremendous euphoria was in the air. The turnout of people for that Easter was great. 'Pershyi Velykden na Voli' [the first Easter in freedom] in the words of Ivan Franko. A lot of Americans came to see the Easter ceremonies (which were televised on a few channels). The hahilky were especially well-done that time - a truly unforgettable event."

Ms. Horbachevsky adds: "I take a walk inside the circle of baskets for a look. Why should I hide the fact that I find what's in the baskets absolutely fascinating. It not only tells what kind of embroidery or weaving are important in that home, but also what the different foods are part of that home's and region's tradition."

Khrystia Momryk of Ottawa writes about the new Ukrainian ecumenism within the Catholic parish: "Our church follows both the old and new calendars in English and Ukrainian. You heard me right, folks! This is how our Sunday schedule works: 9 a.m. - old calendar, Ukrainian; 10:30 a.m. - new calendar, Ukrainian; noon - new calendar, English. The service that has the most people attending is the 9 a.m. one. At holiday times at one service we are still doing our poklony [Lenten bowing], while at another one they are singing 'Khrystos Voskres!' We joke about it, complain about it, but a solution has yet to be found. As we know, language and religion are very sensitive issues. So Easter baskets this year will be blessed two weekends in a row - most people come on Saturday afternoon or evening, while a few bring their baskets on Sunday. The blessing is done in the church hall."

Andriyanna Czubak writes about the small old-calendar church she attends in New York. The blessing takes place on Sunday morning, after each of the two services. "The ceremony is outdoors unless it is raining or extremely windy (those embroidered rushnyky can really fly!), otherwise it is held in the basement of the church," she notes.

She remembers that she and her sister had their own miniature versions of the paska when they got old enough to carry their own baskets. My three sons also had their own basket when they were small, and I baked the babka for their baskets in the smallest can I could find.

And what is in these glorious baskets? Of course, they cannot be too small, because then very little would fit. As it is, people place only a piece of the ham, and sometimes just half of the kovbasa into the basket.

As Ms. Palmer writes: "Most people take care to include the things that parents taught them were important: a candle, eggs, pysanky, butter, cheese, ham and/or kovbasa, khrin (horseradish) and tsvikly (what my dad used to call khrin z burachkamy, i.e., grated horseradish and beets)."

Of course, the paska and/or babka are the centerpieces of the basket.

Ms. Momryk says: "People adorn their baskets with loza (pussy willows), periwinkle, parsley, horseradish (with the green tops), flowers such as daffodils. I have seen baskets with chocolate bunnies and eggs in them."

The baskets are lined with embroidered or woven cloths (servetky) or rushnyky, and may also be covered with another embroidered cloth for transportation. A fairly new trend which drives this writer up the wall is the needlework-type servetky with embroidered pysanky, pussy willows, churches and hahilky on them, along with the embroidered words of the Easter greeting. Why?! For me, there is no need for additional symbolism or reinforcement. There are real pysanky in the basket, with real pussy willows, and people are in a real church. The genuine folk embroidery and weaving is just the right complement to the contents of the basket. I think this fad (now entrenched among some) started with one photograph in a book of embroidery from a Ukrainian gift shop. Now you can find those pysanka servetky at the open-air folk art market near the opera in Lviv! This is a matter of personal taste - but usually with little background information.

Orest T. Lechnowsky, from somewhere in cyberspace, says he prefers the traditional embroidered cloths, even though he sees many of the needlework kind at his church.

We have come a long way in distance and time from past traditions. There is no roasted suckling pig being blessed (carried to church in its own serving container, not in any basket!). Our pasky are not the size of wagon wheels, carried in large shawls, or in special carved wooden paskivnyky. Our Church and priests have accepted this tradition of blessing the spring sacrifice. It was not always so - back in 1591 the Patriarch of Constantinople issued an edict, reprinted in Lviv, forbidding these "pagan sacrifices."

But tradition is most powerful, and the Church relented because it had to, because people continued to bring baskets of food to be blessed, just as their ancestors before Christianity had done - carrying sacrifices to be blessed by earlier, pre-Christian priests.

One tradition has fallen by the wayside in North America and, for the sake of safety, thank goodness. Mr. Onyshkevych remembered that in Ukraine "as the choir and the diak sang 'Khrystos Voskres!' in the church, the young men outside would shoot a 'mozdir' - a homemade mortar or cannon. Then they shot it every time 'Khrystos Voskres!' was sung. They also shot homemade firecrackers, etc.. In the 1960-1970s our church in Trenton, N.J. observed the same custom. The neighbors objected very much, so finally the police closed it down - not without a good fight. Maybe that is why the enormous bonfires set near the church are no longer a tradition in North America."

Many thanks to the Folkarts folks who so generously contributed their thoughts and reminiscences to this article.

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