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Religion in Russia
Easter is the biggest and most important celebration in the Russian Orthodox Church - the 'feast of feasts'. Before Easter, the Orthodox Christian will fast for seven weeks. This means that he or she is not allowed to eat any animal products (for example meat or fish, milk, butter, cheese, eggs) or drink alcohol.
During the week before Easter people will start to prepare food for the Easter celebration. Delicious cakes and puddings are prepared and hard-boiled eggs are coloured in anticipation of the 'greatest holy day'. On Easter Saturday, many people will bring these specially prepared Easter dishes to church to have them blessed by the priest.
The main Easter service is then held starting that Saturday night, usually at about 11-11.30pm and will go on until the early hours of Sunday morning. The service is beautiful: each person in church holds a candle, the choir sings the most moving church music, and the priests, wearing the most beautiful ceremonial attire, rejoice in the occasion.
At about midnight, after a procession of the whole congregation around the church, the priest proclaims joyously: "Christ is risen!", and the worshippers respond : "Indeed he is risen". It is with these words that Orthodox Christians greet each other on Easter Day and during the seven weeks after Easter. In the early hours of Easter morning, after the service, the congregation will join the priests in the church hall for a meal which has usually been prepared in advance and contains many of the Easter delicacies and other foods i.e. many of those things that people had go without in the seven weeks fast before Easter. They are thus 'breaking the fast' by having 'breakfast'.
More on Easter with pictures
www.whererussia.com/msk/fullarticle?id=2985
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Easter eggs
www.moscow-guide.ru/culture/folkart/eggs/index.htm
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On Russian Orthodox Church
www.russian-orthodox-church.org.ru/en.htm
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Icons are very important part of Russian Orthodox Church rituals. “It is the focal point of the believer’s religious emotion… and it is widely seen by Russians as a sacred object in itself” (Orlando Figes “Natasha Dance” A cultural History of Russia , p.299).
To view Russian icons:
www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/foreign/russian/icons/index.html
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