Easter is the biggest and most important Christian holiday, it’s a day when the Lord Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead and gave all the people eternal life. Because of its importance, each Sunday during the year is considered as a little Easter. This moveable feast is celebrating on the first Sunday after the full moon which falls on the day of the vernal equinox or immediately after it. Easter must be between 22^nd of March and 25^th of April- at the Catholics by Gregorian and at the Orthodox by Julian calendar. Due to the difference of 13 days between these two calendars, the Orthodox Easter is always between 4^th of April and 8^th of May by the calendar which we use every day.

There are different customs related to the Easter, but one thing is definitely in common for Orthodox and Catholic believers. It is the custom of painting and giving Easter eggs. Eggs are usually painted on Good Friday (rarely some people paint eggs on Thursdays). In the dish with water in which eggs will be painted, a bit of holly water is added, the water which was consecrated during the Easter fasting. The first painted egg is left beside until the next Easter and it’s called the “home keeper”. There are several ways to paint eggs:  some women collect interestingly shaped leafs which are then attached to the eggs with nylon stockings and then all together is cooked in onion leafs; others decorate eggs with pen dipped in the heated wax, before painting, the reason for this is that after cooking, part of the egg which was covered with wax stays white because it could not receive a color; and finally there are new modern methods of decoration with artificial colors and printed stickers made of paper or plastic.

The ritual of painting eggs symbolizes event when Mary Magdalene traveled to Rome to preach the Gospel when during the visit to the Emperor Tiberius she gave him a red egg and greeted him with the words “Christ is Risen”. The red color symbolizes the blood of the Lord Savior.

Long bell ringing from towers of churches announces the arrival of the holiday. After Easter liturgy believers greet each other with “Christ is Risen!” and “Truly He is Risen!”. Those who are less religious celebrate Easter at home with family, practicing old folk custom in egg knocking competition, which is a special joy for young children. Easter meals are diverse and table is decorated with Easter eggs. The rest of the day people spend in a festive mood.

If you plan visiting some friends or family, don’t forget to take some Easter eggs as a present.