An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in Easter on Apr 8th, 2007
Here’s a bit about the traditional Easter basket in the Byzantine Church tradition.
These baskets of food are brought to the church to be blessed after the Resurrection matins Service. The foods represent the foods abstained from during Lent: eggs, meat, butter, rich breads and more. All meals on Easter Sunday are eaten from the basket, [...]
Posted in Easter on Apr 8th, 2007
It wouldn’t feel like Easter if I didn’t post the traditional Easter greeting in some language other than English. So Kristus er oppstanden is that greeting — in Norwegian. From monachos.net, here’s more on the meaning of the Paschal greeting and response, plus that exchange translated into 59 languages.
Now this is lovely. Here are the Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra, with:
…26 hymns from the ancient church, sung by the monks of the historic Kiev-Pechersk cave monastery. Included are rare sacred music pieces by both Rachmaninov and the Italian composer J.Sarti, who was so enraptured by Orthodox singing that he left Italy [...]
Posted in Easter on Apr 6th, 2007
From the National Museum of Ireland’s Easter Traditions page:
Museum Curator, Clodagh Doyle, explains how people traditionally marked Easter. "People followed the rituals and ceremonies for all the days of Holy Week. They wore a piece of palm that had been blessed in church on Palm Sunday. They cleaned and whitewashed the house, yard, and byre [...]
Posted in Easter on Apr 4th, 2007
In the Czech tradition, today is Ugly Wednesday and tomorrow will be Green Thursday. Friday will be Good Friday, of course:
Good Friday was always regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as the day of greatest grief in the Church. It’s the only day in the year when Mass is not held anywhere in the world. [...]