{"id":7739,"date":"2017-04-19T15:58:37","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T12:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=7739"},"modified":"2020-04-09T15:51:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T12:51:26","slug":"ukrainianrussian-orthodox-easter-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/ukrainianrussian-orthodox-easter-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian\/Russian Orthodox Easter Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Easter morning I visited our local Orthodox Church, which is just across the street from our place. This church is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which claims the largest number of adherents of any church in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>As I say in the video, they have their main worship service at midnight on the eve of Easter. I wasn&#8217;t there for that service but you can see how the midnight service looked in Kiev&#8217;s Pecherskaya Lavra in the video below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XcINZrny_ZA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>One important aspect of Orthodox tradition is bringing the &#8220;Blessed Flame&#8221; from Jerusalem to all the Orthodox Churches in the Slavic world. This flame is said to miraculously appear in Jesus&#8217; tomb on Easter morning. The flame is also said to miraculously not burn a person&#8217;s skin and that is why you often see people waving their hands through it. Those who attend the Easter services usually purchase a candle which is lit by the blessed flame and then brought home in order to bless their home.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MswL37USaiA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Later on Easter morning after the midnight service, the people will come to back to the church for the blessing on their Easter baskets. Of course, there are far fewer people who show up for the midnight service than who come for the basket blessing later! The lines at our church were quite long.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7740\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7740\" data-attachment-id=\"7740\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/ukrainianrussian-orthodox-easter-traditions\/dsc07722\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1200,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;ILCE-6000&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1492334955&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;26&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;100&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"DSC07722\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Our local Orthodox Church on Easter morning.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7740\" src=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722-980x653.jpg 980w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07722-573x382.jpg 573w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7740\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Our local Orthodox Church on Easter morning.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Everyone came with their Easter basket in hand, waiting in line for the priest to bless it with his holy water. If you want to know the history behind the sprinkling tradition you can <a href=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/why-the-orthodox-church-sprinkles-everything-with-water\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">check out this post.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Inside the basket are usually items that people have not been able to eat because of Lent, although it&#8217;s rare for people here to follow the diet restrictions of Lent.<\/p>\n<p>This will probably include Paskha bread, sausage, eggs, wine, and salt, although these things can be different from church to church and person to person. Some also include vodka or konyak but most churches frown on this practice.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"7743\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/ukrainianrussian-orthodox-easter-traditions\/dsc07724\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1200,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;ILCE-6000&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1492335010&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;55&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;640&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.00625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"DSC07724\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7743 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724-980x653.jpg 980w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07724-573x382.jpg 573w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The people move slowly waiting in line for the priest to bless their basket. This is usually all done outdoors since there is simply not room to accommodate the thousands who come on Easter morning.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"7744\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/ukrainianrussian-orthodox-easter-traditions\/dsc07732\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1200,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;6.3&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;ILCE-6000&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1492335321&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;208&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1600&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.003125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"DSC07732\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7744 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732-980x653.jpg 980w, https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07732-573x382.jpg 573w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Finally, the people reach the priest who is standing behind a table on top of which is a large plastic bucket filled with holy water. (Our Orthodox Church had 5 tables set up to accommodate all the people.) He takes his aspergillum (the brush) and dips it in the water then douses the basket and the face of the person holding the basket.<\/p>\n<p>The person then places a donation into the large offering box placed next to the bucket of water or they simply slip the cash into the hand of the priest.<\/p>\n<p>After the basket has been blessed the people take the blessed goods and have a picnic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Easter morning I visited our local Orthodox Church, which is just across the street from our place. This church is part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate),<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193],"tags":[443,49,442,254,444],"class_list":["post-7739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-ukraine-2","tag-baptist","tag-easter","tag-orthodox-church","tag-orthodoxy","tag-traditions","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-20P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2457,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/why-were-not-celebrating-easter-this-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":7739,"position":0},"title":"Why the Orthodox Church Celebrates Easter on a Different Date","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"March 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We're not celebrating Easter this week, we're not even planning to celebrate it next month! Why? In most of Eastern Europe religious holidays are dictated by the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar, which was introduced by Julius Cesar in 45 BC. \u00a0However, most of the rest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ukraine&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ukraine-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/DSC07153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/DSC07153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/DSC07153.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7726,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/easter-in-a-ukrainian-village\/","url_meta":{"origin":7739,"position":1},"title":"Easter in A Ukrainian Village","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 19, 2017","format":"video","excerpt":"This Resurrection weekend we visited our sister church in the village of Limany to help them celebrate. Limany, (which means estuaries) sits about 50 miles from Odessa on the shore of a large estuary of the Black Sea called \"Berizovksy.\" Back in 2007 Pastor Anatoly and his church were doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ministry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07689.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07689.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07689.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07689.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07689.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5370,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/why-the-orthodox-church-sprinkles-everything-with-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":7739,"position":2},"title":"Why the Orthodox Church Sprinkles Everything with Water","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"On\u00a0Easter morning I decided to visit the Orthodox temple, which is just down the street from our place. Every holiday people come to worship and to be sanctified with holy water and Easter is the biggest of all the holidays! Here's what I saw. In Orthodox tradition Easter services start\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC03486.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC03486.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/DSC03486.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4471,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/is-there-a-war-against-the-protestant-church-by-radical-orthodox\/","url_meta":{"origin":7739,"position":3},"title":"Is There a War Against the Protestant Church by Radical Orthodox?","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"October 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in June I wrote about how Peter Dudnik's church in Slavyansk was seized by separatists and then used as a military base and as a firing position on Ukrainian forces. Thankfully in August Ukrainian troops regained control of Slavyansk and Dudnik's church building was returned to the congregation. Recently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ukraine&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ukraine-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/orthodox-war.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/orthodox-war.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/orthodox-war.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5226,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/donetsk-war-on-protestant-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":7739,"position":4},"title":"Donetsk&#8217; War on Protestant Churches","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Is there a targeted effort to take out Protestant Churches in the Eastern Ukraine war-zone? In this video reporter Simon Ostrovsky\u00a0recently traveled to Donetsk and visited several Protestant church buildings that are now under the control of Donetsk People's Republic soldiers. One pastor describes how armed men came to their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;New&quot;","block_context":{"text":"New","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/new\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/propoganda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/propoganda.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/propoganda.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5381,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/easter-outreach-in-odessa-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":7739,"position":5},"title":"Easter Outreach in Odessa, Ukraine","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes God does something really amazing and that's exactly what happened this past weekend when he provided amazing weather and an extraordinary opportunity to share the gospel and the love of Christ with refugees from Eastern Ukraine. I'm not going to do a lot of writing here because I want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ministry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/easter-outreach.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/easter-outreach.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/easter-outreach.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7739"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12389,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7739\/revisions\/12389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}