What's in your Pascha Basket?

This week is Holy week for Orthodox Christians and this Sunday is Easter or also called Pascha which marks the end of Great Lent. Orthodox or Eastern Easter does not fall on the same date as Western Easter because the Western Church (Catholics, Protestants, etc.) use the Gregorian Calender to calculate the date of Easter and the Eastern Church (Eastern Orthodox) use the Julian Calendar. Countries like Russia and Greece where the majority of Christians are Orthodox all celebrate Easter based on the Julian Calendar as well as many others all over the world.

It is a tradition in the Orthodox Church to bring a basket filled with all the foods which we have been abstaining from during Great Lent. The basket is brought to church on Easter night where the baskets are all blessed by the priest and after the midnight Paschal Liturgy, we all gather together and feast on all the goodies.

There are several traditional things that go into a Pascha basket which you can find here. My family and I usually do a mix of the traditional and untraditional. This year I am including things like, cheese, chocolate milk (my favorite!), prosciutto, milk chocolate, olive oil, eggs, and I made a traditional Pascha bread. I am very much looking forward to Pascha!

Happy Easter. Christ is Risen!!