At Easter we eat and do this, but an other family does something else, and in the next town there is a third thing going on. Everyone is following some kinds of traditions, especially when it comes to holidays. Everyone is following the methods, which were seen in their childhood.  And that is how and why we still have our traditions. But in some cases, when the tradition tells you to do something, which does not feel right to do, then just question it and try to find out the origin of it.

A couple of years ago, one of my teacher told a story about traditions, and it gave me food for thought. There is this young couple, who has their first Easter together, and they buy a ham together, bring it home and the woman is about to cook it. But before placing the big ham into the pot, she cuts off the two ends of it. The man asks him, what is she doing, and she says, well that is how she learnt to cook an Easter ham. This new tradition does not make any sense for the man, so he suggests to go and ask the mother about it. They go, and ask the mother, who cannot say more than, that is how she learnt it from hers. They visit the grandmother, and ask her, why did she cut off the ends of the ham, before cooking it. She smiles and says 'well, I did it, because it was the war, and I was missing pots. So I only had a small one, and when I finally got a ham, I had to cut both ends, to make it fit into the pot.'

What I learnt from this story, whether it is true or not, to be careful with traditions. Not to be bigot, and not to follow them blindly. If a tradition requires me to do something, for example pointless wasting, I just question it, and probably not follow it.

These are the Easter traditions, which I grew up with.

We eat smoked ham, which was boiled for hours long together with eggs, so they get the smoked ham taste as well. We eat these with a strong horseradish cream, but if it gets too hot, we just smell the challah bread, and all the bad side effects are gone in a second...we eat radish and spring onion too, just as they are, dipping into a tiny salt pile, which is on our plates. And we never miss the challah, which is much better, if you bake your own, instead of buying one. This kind of challah is following jewish, pagan traditions. The circle shape is a symbol of nature's cycles. We eat this menu on Holy Saturday.

On Easter Sunday girls come together and paint eggs, with different methods. First you have to decide if you would like to blow out, or boil the eggs. You choose the easier way if you go for the hard-boiled version. Simply cook the eggs in water, cool them. You can color them with cabbage, onionskin, beetroot, parsley, curcuma...If you choose to blow out the eggs, you need much more time for decoration, but at least you can make scrambled eggs 😉 Decoration can be prints of leaves and flowers, scratches with wax or patterns painted with a brush.

On Easter Monday comes the peak of the pagan traditions with ironic poetry, with soda-sprinkling guys vs screaming girls, who in return for not letting them "fade", like flowers, give the decorated eggs to the sprinkler 🙂

 

Keep your traditions, cook good food, and be together with others, now in the name of Easter:)