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Food blessing big part of Easter ceremonies
By Mary Wozniak
mwozniak@news-press.com
Originally posted on April 15, 2006
The celebration of Easter on Sunday brings a bounty of foods to the springtime table, many of them traditional.
In some area church communities, a special basket is prepared with symbolic foods that are blessed today for holiday consumption.
The blessing is celebrated mostly by Slavic, or Polish, Ukrainian and Russian people.
In the Greek Orthodox religion, which celebrates Easter this year on Sunday, April 23, bright red eggs symbolizing the blood of Christ will be blessed after midnight on April 22, said Rev. Johannes Jacobe of St. Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church in Naples.
Today's events include a 9 a.m. blessing at Our Lady of Light Catholic Community Church, 19680 Cypress View, Estero, and a noon blessing at St. Leo's Catholic Church, 28290 Beaumont Road, Bonita Springs.
The customs are ancient, said Barb Bilyeau, music and liturgy coordinator for Our Lady of Light in Estero. "All of the foods represent Christ," she said "We bring our religious traditions to our table."
Area clergy say the tradition's roots are traceable to the Jewish roots of Christianity, particularly the Seder meal at the Jewish commemoration of Passover. The meal involves unleavened bread, wine, bitter herbs and meat that cannot be stored but must be eaten immediately.
The fresh foods in the basket include boiled eggs, butter or a cake created to look like a lamb, sausage or ham, horseradish, salt, bread, wine and vinegar.
The eggs are dyed, usually with commercial food dyes purchased in a grocery store or drug store.
But Jenny Drabek of Bonita Springs still dyes her eggs the old-fashioned way — by boiling them in onion skins.
"If you have a red skin, you have a kind of rosy glow to the egg," she said.
Drabek belonged to the Polish-American Social Club at St. Leo's Catholic Church, which sponsored the basket blessing for the past 20 years.
The club was disbanded a year ago because of dwindling membership. But the tradition caught on among the church membership and still remains.
This year the blessing will be performed by Rev. Stan Strycharz, a native of Poland.
"We get a nice crowd," Drabek said. "I'm always happy to see that parents are there with children." About one third of the crowd is children, and they bring chocolate bunnies in their own Easter baskets for a kind of meshing of customs.
In Polish tradition, the food in the basket is eaten at a breakfast called "Swienconka" after Easter Sunday Mass.
Swienconka involves the belief in Christ's resurrection and spiritual and seasonal renewal.
One non-religious Greek custom has two people tapping their eggs together, Rev. Jacobe said.
"Whoever's egg doesn't break will have good luck."
EASTER FOODS (POLISH TRADITION)
The blessed foods and their symbolic meaning:
• Egg (pisanka): Symbol of life and rebirth. Decorating them was in anticipation of this rebirth, signified by the coming of spring.
• Sausage (kielbasa) or ham: All types of pork were forbidden under the dietary code of the Old Testament. The coming of Christ was seen as exceeding the old law, and the dietary items became acceptable.
• Paschal lamb: It can be made of butter, cake or marzipan and is the centerpiece of the meal. The paschal lamb carries a red banner emblazoned with a cross to signify Christ's resurrection.
• Horseradish/pepper: Symbolizes the bitter herbs of the Passover and the Exodus, also representing the bitterness of exile.
• Salt: A fundamental spice and preservative, which joins bread in Polish tradition as a sign of hospitality.
• Bread: Christ has been referred to as "the Bread of Life." Bread also symbolizes the Eucharist in the Catholic Mass.
• Vinegar: Symbolizes the gall (sour wine) given to Christ at the crucifixion.
• Wine: Symbolizes the blood of sacrifice spilled by Christ.
— SOURCE: THE REV. CHESTER KRYSA OF ORCHARD LAKE SEMINARY, MICH.