Saturday 30 March 2013

Polish tradition on Holy Saturday

This is our basket this year

This is basket from last year decorated by my mum - flowers are from our garden!


One of the Easter traditions in Poland is blessing of the Easter baskets. Baskets containing a sampling of Easter foods are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday. The basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and decorated with sprigs of boxwood, the typical Easter evergreen. It is a great fun to prepare a decorative and tasteful basket with crisp linens, occasionally embroidered for the occasion, and boxwood and ribbon woven through the handle. Ever since I was a little kid, I loved to see the creativity of other parishioners - some have little fluffy chickens and others some eggs decorated in a beautiful patterns (pisanki).

The foods in the baskets have a symbolic meaning:
  • eggs - symbolise life and Christ's resurrection
  • bread - symbolic of Jesus
  • salt - represents purification
  • horseradish - symbolic of the bitter sacrifice of Christ.
The food blessed in the church remains untouched according to local traditions until either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.

No comments:

Post a Comment