Christos Voskres! (Christ is Risen)

Voistynu Voskres (He is Risen Indeed)!  

Ukrainian Easter celebrations seem to be a melding of traditional Christian practices, folklore, and ancient pagan symbolism.  For example, instead of Easter egg hunts, baskets are filled with foods prepared during Holy Week – eggs, sweet bread and meat – that were not eaten for the past 6 weeks during Lent.   Non-Lenten foods are also included along with decorative trim and candles.  The food is blessed at a midnight mass on Saturday or Sunday morning and then eaten on Easter, breaking the Lenten fast.  

We joined a local church to celebrate Easter and Nanci and Ken had the opportunity to share a testimony.

We also celebrated Pam’s birthday!  In addition to birthday cake, we enjoyed traditional Easter sweet bread and a dessert tribute to American friends.

After lunch we took a Ukrainian language and smile lesson.  The smiles seem to be a little easier to master…

We finished the day with great conversation and a light meal at Slavic and Nadia’s beautiful home.  We were incredibly grateful for their hospitality!