Easter eggs, which brings a rabbit, burning stuffed for Easter and sports skating eggs: do you know all about Easter?
Easter Sunday is one of the main Christian holidays, compared to which only Christmas can by merit. On the eve of Easter, the Holy Fire annually descends, proving the miracle of the life and rebirth of Christ. Unquestionably, this is the most interesting of the facts connected with the main religious event of spring. And is there any more information about Easter that everyone will be interested in learning?
1. The custom of painting eggs was not invented by Christians
What kind of food is associated with the holiday, except for the cottage cheese Easter and cake? Of course, colored eggs. To give them all shades of rainbow use both natural and safe chemical dyes. The invention of this symbolic food for so long ascribed to Christians, that today few people can tell his true story. Meanwhile, the eggs of ducks and chickens were the first to paint the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt and Persia. They gave them to each other in honor of the holiday of the first spring days, wishing the family fertility and prosperity.
2. Easter is associated with both sincere and sinful purposes
Closer to Easter, many Christians are in a hurry to repent of their sins and start a new life from scratch. They try not to swear on the floor, do not offend people and animals, help their neighbors. People who were far from observing religious norms had their own perception of the meaning of the Resurrection. For example, thieves have a belief that anyone who can steal something from parishioners of the Orthodox Church during the Easter service will be lucky all year round. Fans of gambling know that fortune will turn to them, if you put a coin in shoes before entering the temple.
3. From Easter to the day of the Ascension, one can not refuse anyone in charity
Charity is pleasing to God all year round, but on the days of great feasts it acquires special significance. "From Easter to Ascension Christ wanders the earth with the apostles, experiencing the mercy and kindness of everyone," the elders used to say in ancient times. To refuse help from the Easter Sunday to the Ascension of the Lord is the worst thing for a pious believer. Help can be not monetary: listening to a friend and giving him good advice or feeding a homeless animal is capable even of the needy.
4. The Easter festivities of the Slavic countries, Serbia and Bulgaria are incredibly similar
Large-scale holidays are held in Russia and Ukraine with games for young people, dances and songs. Boys and girls from Serbia and Bulgaria would not feel themselves as strangers on the Easter holidays: in these countries they are called "colo" and "Narodni Sobor". Service in monasteries begins at 3-4 o'clock in the morning, and the first signs of celebration can be seen already at dawn. The only difference is that these peoples have no tradition of baking cakes the day before. But in Bulgaria, on Saturday before the Resurrection, they write on the small clay pots wishes to the family and drop them from the elevation so that they will break into small shards.
5. Easter cake - another symbol of paganism
Like colored eggs, invented by worshipers of pagan gods, cakes were not mentioned in the Old Testament and were not considered part of the Easter rituals. The process of its preparation was a sacrifice to the gods of fertility, people who had no idea of religion were more frightened of anger than they were dying. If the sacrificial cakes could have a different form, the Easter baking looks like a church dome.
6. Catholics believe that the rabbit is carrying eggs
The history of a rabbit laying eggs is known to every child in Europe. A few days before Easter, parents help him arrange a secret place in which a sweet fluffy animal can leave a gift for the baby. The role of a perch for a rabbit is played by a small basket decorated with ribbons and hay. Children are waiting for the rabbit's visit with the same enthusiasm as Santa Claus. A figurine of a rabbit made of chocolate, adults are advised to start eating from the ears: according to rumors, this will appease the donor.
7. The largest decorated egg can be found in Canada
Residents of the town of Vegreville in the province of Alberta have found a way to outperform anyone who paints eggs for Easter. They did not invent new patterns or methods of coloring - Canadians simply created an installation of a huge egg: its length is 8 meters, and the weight exceeds 2 tons!
8. Americans turned the skating of eggs in sports
Residents of the US do not know anything about the fact that in ancient times the eggs were catalyzed on the ground so that the harvest was rich. They made the skating of painted eggs a thematic sport competition, held once a year. The largest of them is arranged on the lawn in front of the White House in Washington. There come hundreds of children and parents with baskets full of eggs. The one whose egg swings for a longer distance without stopping wins.
9. Swedes Easter reminds Halloween
If a tourist gets to Sweden for Easter, he will be deceived by little girls walking along the streets in the costumes of young witches with brooms. "Easter Witches" resemble children dressing for Halloween and receiving food from adults. Girls, dressed up in rags, carry a teapot from copper, where they put candy and biscuits. Swedes believe that before Easter, the witch arranges a real Sabbath on Mount Blokula.
10. The Greeks burn a scarecrow for Easter - but it has nothing to do with the Carnival
No pancakes - the Greeks arrange a festive burning on the eve of Easter, and not Carnival. In small towns of the Greek islands, the people gather on Saturday in front of Sunday in the central square, where a stuffed apostle is laid in advance, who betrayed Christ. The Greeks dance and accompany the songs with the waving of the ashes to the wind after the ceremony.
11. French bells before Easter fly to Rome
In many countries of Europe on the day of Great Friday church bells fall silent until Christ's Resurrection. When children ask adults the reason for the absence of the bell, which calls believers to the service, they answer them that "the bells flew to Rome." On Easter, the bell sounds again - and then they are happy with all generations of parishioners.