Hop into Spring!
Easter Bunnies
Spring is here! As a luxury real estate company, it is helpful to understand multiple cultures and ethnic holidays. Friends, family, and prospective clients will appreciate this gain in knowledge. For example, did you know there are two Easters?
Many people will be celebrating Easter this Sunday (April 12th), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted calendar. The computation for the Easter date is based on the cycle of the moon. It can fall on 35 possible dates between late March and late April.
The revised Julian calendar is used for holiday celebrations by Eastern/Oriental Orthodox Christians. In accordance to this calendar, Easter must fall after Passover. Christ celebrated Passover prior to his crucifixion. So Easter must fall after Passover (April 9). The Eastern Orthodox Easter this year is on April 19th.
Easter is one of the most important religious and secular holidays for this sect of Christianity. Children are given large chocolate eggs or bunnies filled with toys and candies. Special breads are baked with colored eggs. In Greece, Leg of lamb is roasted slowly over a spit basted with lemon, garlic and oregano.
The Russians make a special sweet bread (kulich) baked in coffee cans, and a pyramid shaped cheesecake (Cheese Paska) embossed with the letters XB, the Russian abbreviation for “Christ has risen“. Some families bring kulich to church for the midnight service to have it blessed, and to share after the service. The service includes a procession circling the church three times. Then the priest declares, “Christ has risen”, and the congregation responds, “Indeed he has!” Then everyone disperses home or to friends’ homes to feast till the wee hours of the morning. The next day, people start all over again visiting friends and comparing the buffet and delicious offerings.
We celebrate it all! There are wonderful traditions in all religious feasts! These rituals get us to slow down and contemplate the wisdom and truths that are common to all of us. It is the celebration of the human spirit, and springtime when everything is born anew, nature’s resurrection. Happy Easter (twice), Happy Passover, and Happy Spring!
Easter Eggs