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Cities / Going Russian / National holidays & traditions / Orthodox Easter

Orthodox Easter

In Russia, celebrating Easter has many traditions, some of which derive from folk customs and have no equivalents in the Western Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church recalls the Resurrection of Christ every Sunday, many of which take their title from the Gospel lesson for the day. In addition to Easter, which is 'the feast of feasts,' there are 12 other major feasts: Christmas, Annunciation, Ascension, Transfiguration, etc.

The Orthodox Easter is often observed on a later Sunday than in the Western Church, partly because the Eastern Church adheres to the Julian calendar for the movable year. When relatives, or close friends meet at Easter, the Russian Easter greeting and reply 'Khristos voskrese!- Voistinu voskrese! (Christ is risen! - Christ is risen indeed!) presuppose thrice-repeated kissing on both cheeks and presenting to each other painted eggs.

In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are usually painted red to symbolize the blood Jesus shed on the cross. Another significant symbol of Orthodox Easter is paskha, a cottage-cream cheesecake with candied fruits made in a pyramid shape. When a Russian family would gather to have an Easter meal, paskha is always placed in the centre of the table. Traditionally at Easter Russians would visit the cemeteries, leaving, together with flowers, a piece of paskha and painted eggs on the graves of their relatives.

Last update: 01.01.1970