Ukrainian Easter (Velykden)

 Easter is the feast of Christ’s resurrection, which in its observance combines both pagan and Christian elements. Easter (in Ukrainian: ‘Velykden’ or ‘Paskha’) is preceded by seven weeks of Lent and celebrated on each first week after vernal equinox and full moon. It is the most cheerful holiday for orthodox believers.

In Ukraine Easter is called Velykden (The Great Day). In Ukraine Easter has been celebrated over a long period of history and has had many rich folk traditions.

Velykden was celebrated thousands of years ago as the victory of the Light over the Dark, Day over Night, Spring over Winter. The Resurrection was celebrated only from 988 when Kiev Rus was baptized.

The week before Easter, the Great (Velykyi) Week (Holy Week), is called the White (Bilyi) or Pure (Chystyi) Week.

During this time all the work on a field have to be done till Thursday.

Saturday evening people do to the church for the Easter praying till the morning when priests bless the food. After that people go home to celebrate Easter with their families. If they meet other people on the way they say: “Christ is risen!” and these people should reply “Risen indeed”.

All the people exchange Easter greetings and give each other painted eggs (krashanky).

Easter cake (Paska) and painted eggs (‘Krashanki’) are the symbols of Ukrainian Easter and obligatory food on the table this day. Paska is baked  in the form of cylinder. Krashanka is a boiled and painted egg. On this Day Ukrainian kids play their favorite Easter game: knocking the eggs. If you knock somebody’s egg and you egg is not broken than you are the winner.

Easter is one of the most popular holidays Ukrainians, and there are a lot of festivals held those days, such as: "The Easter egg festival" in Kiev, "The Great Hayivka festival" in Lviv, "The Easter egg festival" in Colomya. Positive spring atmosphere attracts many tourists. People dance, sing Easter songs: "hayivky" and  "mayivky".