April 21, 2006

Easter Reborn


Easter Reborn

Russia Gets Ready For Easter

Even in the Soviet Union, Russian Easter, or Paskha, never fully disappeared, despite the shuttering of churches and persecution of believers, but it did take on a more secular tone amongst average Russians.

A week before Easter, Soviet bakeries started selling Keks Vesenny, Spring Cakes, a thinly-disguised traditional Easter sweetbread known as kulich. Preparation for the holiday would include a major house cleaning and a visit to relatives' graves, both disguised as seasonal spring cleaning. On Saturday night or a perhaps even a couple of days prior, the cooking began. If the woman of the house had time, or was in a baking mood, she would make her own kulich, if not, Keks Vesenny would do. But most houses would decorate eggs, to the great delight of the kids. Eggs boiled with dried onion peels turned different shades of brownish-red, and Russian ingenuity found a way to achieve patterns: by boiling eggs in nylon bags, along with rice or parsley leaves. On Sunday morning, the family would eat Easter fare, with kids entertaining themselves with egg fights and sometimes quietly wondering what the real deal was with kulich. Family visits and exchanges with colored eggs and slices of kulich filled the rest of the day. Few kids cared about the religious side of the holiday.

The tide turned after the Soviet Union expired, as the country obviously needed a new ideology. Since the early 1990s, Russian officials have openly displayed their support for the Russian Orthodox faith and make regular church appearances during major holidays, to the consternation of the representatives of other major religions in the country. Television stations have started broadcasting church services during holidays, especially at Easter, as well as speeches by church leaders. Announcing upcoming church holidays has become an indispensable part of newscasts.

Today, over half of Russia's population call themselves Russian Orthodox believers, while the Russian Orthodox Church now has some 12,665 parishes, 207 monasteries, 226 nunneries and 4,696 Sunday schools.

However, until recently, this religious comeback was more of a superficial influence among common people. Many would go to church without really knowing the order of service or the rites, just to make an appearance. Some would watch a TV broadcast from the midnight service on Easter eve over a glass of beer and a hearty meal. All would idle the day away after learning it is a religious holiday, because "it's a sin to work on a Holy Day." But few would know or care for the real meaning of the observance.

Russia has never been a vegetarian heaven, and one can tell that religion is now taking hold based on the growing observance of the Great Lent. As more and more people fast before Easter, restaurants around the country have introduced Great Lent menus, with food excluding any animal products. Grocery stores have caught on: marking food as a "Great Lent choice" and trading "Lent daily sets" - Patriarch-approved prepackaged fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

As Easter approaches this year, supermarkets are flooded by egg-shaped decorations and kulich, with competing bakeries offering samples (during the most strict week of the Lent). And a special website Paskha.ru will get you in the true Easter mood with advice, downloadable church bell ringtones and appropriate wallpaper for your computer desktop.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955