Preparation for Easter. Tips of an Orthodox hostess

Bright Sunday. Ilya Kaverznev

When preparing for the Easter holiday, it is important to remember that household chores that seem so important coincide with the period of Passion Week. Washing windows, baking Easter cakes, numerous purchases and decorating the house should not obscure the main thing from us - the Passion service. How to do everything?

Easter. Andrey Lipatov

Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Experienced housewives try to finish all the house cleaning chores

until Maundy Thursday.

According to the many years of experience of the familiar keepers of the hearth, it is quite possible to cook Easter cakes in the first days of Passion Day, so that later heavy and time-consuming baking does not distract from the services.

Not all families give gifts to children and each other on this day. As the mother of 4 children said: “We refused gifts 15 years ago, because otherwise, instead of thinking about the Passion of the Lord, I would have been tormented by the problems of choosing gifts. Whenever possible, I try to go to services with the children, read the missed ones together, participate in the procession and the removal of the Shroud (everything is within my power, according to the age of the children).

Maundy Thursday

On Maundy Thursday, if possible, all Orthodox Christians go to church for the Liturgy. There will also be a service in the evening. Therefore, during the day it is better not to start anything that requires serious energy costs.

Many families paint eggs on this day. In traditional onion skins, eggs are boiled for about 20 minutes, coloring with artificial dyes takes about half an hour. Some more time is spent on decorating with stickers, smearing with oil for shine, etc., putting an hour and a half on the coloring of eggs, you definitely can’t go wrong. Of course, we are talking about more or less traditional painting of eggs, artistic tempera paints take more time. Those housewives who do not like to cook Easter cakes in advance put the dough Thursday night to bake them on Friday in the first half of the day.

Good Friday

To come to both services of Good Friday - the removal of the Shroud and the rite of burial - usually none of the mothers with children succeeds. Either the husband and wife alternate, agreeing on who will go to what service, or the mother and children come to the procession.

Holy Saturday

Children are very fond of attending the Liturgy on Holy Saturday, it is at this time that the dark vestments of Holy Week change to light ones, some girls and girls change headscarves from dark to white at the same time.

V For some families, it has become a good tradition to decorate the house with bouquets of fresh spring flowers. They can also stand on the table, along with willow branches and figurines of chickens. Today, stores offer a large selection of such accessories, and decorating a house and a table in this style is not difficult.

In some families, on Saturday afternoon, active preparations for the holiday continue - up to painting eggs and preparing Easter (they are consecrated after the Easter Liturgy). And yet, no matter how important the unfinished business may seem, be sure to find time to relax. It does not matter what kind of service you are going to - for the night or morning. In any case, one must tear oneself away from decorating the house and washing the floors - in order to feel the great silence that precedes the Feast of Feasts.

Hostess on Holy Week:

For the convenience of planning time for Holy Week, we suggest that you use a short calendar compiled together with experienced housewives who have been preparing for Easter for many years, which indicates all the services of this period. The time left from visiting the temple can be used for household chores.

Great Monday

Morning

Day
Wash windows, lamps
Dismantling cabinets

Evening
We put the dough for Easter cakes.

Maundy Tuesday

Morning
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Day
We bake Easter cakes
We buy the necessary products, paints for eggs, decorations for the house and the festive table

Evening
Together with children, you can make small Easter gifts for relatives and friends with your own hands.

Great Wednesday

Morning
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (performed for the last time and the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian is read for the last time)

Day
General house cleaning
Floor washing

Evening
In many churches, the last confession is made before Easter.

Maundy Thursday

Morning
Liturgy of Basil the Great. Remembrance of the Last Supper.

Day
We paint eggs

Evening
Good Friday Matins with the reading of the 12 Passion Gospels.
After the service, you can put the dough for Easter cakes for the night (if baking them was postponed at the end of the week)

Good Friday

Morning
Royal clock
In the morning, you can cook Easter, as well as bake Easter cakes and paint eggs (if you haven’t done this before)

Day
Around 2:00 pm (usually) Vespers with the Removal of the Shroud

Evening
Great Saturday Matins with the Burial of the Shroud, which ends with a procession (usually mothers with children come to the procession, then venerate the Shroud).
After the service, you can do Easter if you want to do it without children.

Holy Saturday

Morning
Divine Liturgy
After the service - the consecration of Easter cakes, Easter and eggs (you can also bless Easter food throughout the day)

Day
Light cosmetic cleaning
Holiday home decoration
Buying fresh flowers
Some on the same day also paint eggs and make Easter

Evening
Rest and preparation for the Easter service
Easter procession begins at 23.30

Olga Prokhorchenko | 04/29/2016 | 1899

Olga Prokhorchenko 04/29/2016 1899

We connect all family members to the preparation for the bright holiday.

By the way, it is especially useful to prepare for the Easter holiday with your child. This is not only a good time, but also an opportunity to tell him in detail about the traditions and meaning of Easter, if he has a vague idea about it.

Holiday cleaning

Before you go to the store for eggs and other Easter items, you should think about cleaning the house. Get the whole family to help. Divide the duties: let the husband knock out the carpets and remove the curtains, you, for example, wash the floors and windows, and the child can wipe the dust. By the way, this is a great reason to get rid of old furniture, and send clothes that you don’t wear “in exile” to the dacha.

If you live in a private house, you should also clean the area adjacent to the courtyard.

After a general cleaning, you will feel real spring freshness, and cleanliness will please the eye.

Food shopping for Easter

After cleaning, you can go on pre-holiday shopping to buy everything you need. If pre-New Year shopping requires us to buy kilograms of various foods and drinks, then Easter shopping is much more modest in this respect.

You should definitely put eggs, Easter cake in the grocery basket (if you do not plan to bake it on your own). You can also buy sweets and cookies - in case neighbors and relatives come to you (or you want to do it yourself) to be christened.

Buy the rest of the products based on the menu of your holiday table. He, by the way, should be plentiful, but rather modest.

You can treat your family and friends with the following dishes:

• jellied eggs;
• sausages;
• stuffed pike perch;
• pies with onions or meat;
• meat slices.

Egg painting

Painting eggs is perhaps one of the most enjoyable moments in preparation for the Easter holiday, which children really like. It is desirable to approach this process with imagination and creativity.

Polka Dot Egg

Boil the eggs and let them cool. Cut out circles of different sizes from scotch tape and stick them on the eggs in a chaotic manner. Dip them in a pre-prepared solution of 1 cup of water, 1 tsp. vinegar and a few drops of dye. It is enough to hold the eggs in the solution for about 2 minutes to get a fairly saturated color. Next, dry the eggs, remove the circles from them and put them in a special Easter basket.

table decoration

To create a festive mood, you should think about the decor of the table. It can be decorated with napkins with Easter symbols, a vase with willow branches, "newspaper" eggs.

We offer a simple Easter master class on making decorations for the festive table.

You will need:

• several balloons;
• PVA glue;
• floss or iris threads.

1. Inflate balloons to the required size.
2. We impregnate the threads in PVA glue and carefully wrap the balls with them.
3. Leave for a day to dry and then pierce the ball.
4. Ready-made balls of thread can be used for table decor or hung on a chandelier.

Everything, now you are ready for Easter! Christ is risen!

Everyone loves Easter, regardless of the strength of faith. On this festive day, the sun sparkles and plays in a special way, the house smells of baking and goodies, the tables are bursting with treats, the rooms sparkle with cleanliness and delight the eye with festive decorations, relatives exchange gifts, and joy and enlightenment rejoices in everyone’s soul.

Easter: preparation for the holiday, what you need to do

But this joy was preceded by the most difficult week of preparation for Easter - Holy Week.

And difficult, first of all, in the spiritual plan. However, the period of spiritual preparation for Easter coincides with the time of important household chores. How to manage everything, how to properly prepare for Easter, so as not to miss the most important thing, so that household chores do not overshadow the most important thing - a full-fledged spiritual and physical cleansing, which allows you to restore the original harmony.

Let's try to prioritize what needs to be done during Holy Week.

Try to attend at least one service, preferably several.

Forget about resentment and irritation. Whatever you do this week, do it with joy in your soul. Therefore, you have to follow your emotions.

Make time for your loved ones and family.

Not only to the closest ones with whom you live together in the same house, but also remember your sisters, brothers, and maybe parents, good old friends. Just give them a call and chat.

Apologize for the insults, and forgive the offenders yourself.

There are unfinished business or unfulfilled promises, think about what can be fixed before the great Easter.

But it is better to refuse stupid communication. And not only because chatting on the phone and correspondence in social networks takes a lot of your time, but in order to stay with yourself for a while, think, comprehend, and pray.

Don't forget good deeds. Take care of other people. And you can help those in need not only with a certain donation or financial support, but also with a kind word, participation, and a smile.

If you set yourself up in a positive way, it's time to think about how to beautifully prepare for Easter: make new decorations, pick up gifts, prepare an Easter basket and set the festive table.

Only with faith in your soul and spiritual peace you will be in time for everything, you can do everything. Do not spray on trifles, prioritize, and even better, make a plan for preparing for Easter by the days of the week. Or use our tips, which were collected specifically for the Zatusim website.

This calendar will help prepare for Easter for those who do not depend on the work schedule and try to strictly adhere to church canons.

A list of all the services that take place during the Holy Week before Easter will help simplify planning.

The time that is free from visiting a church or a temple is distributed to perform household chores.

Great Monday

Morning. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is held in the church. Therefore, we do not plan household chores in the morning.

Day. The day is dedicated to cleaning and repair work. Earlier on this day, the architraves, the ceilings in the house were whitewashed, the yards were cleaned, and minor repairs were made.

Today, on Monday, you can do work that requires time and physical costs associated with the order in the house.

Wash windows and chandeliers, sort out things in closets, put away winter clothes and shoes.

Evening. So that the last days of the week are not loaded with household chores, some housewives are on Monday, Tuesday. Sweet pastries are perfectly preserved for a long time. They say that Easter cake baked with soul will remain soft for up to 40 days.

Therefore, you can safely put the dough on Easter cakes in the evening, which we will bake on Tuesday.

Maundy Tuesday

Morning. We leave for the church, where the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts will be held.

Day. After the service we go shopping. You need to purchase products for the festive table, decorations, gifts, as well as paint for eggs. Upon returning home, we start baking Easter cakes.

Evening. Preparation for Easter can be devoted to needlework. Make new home decorations, DIY gifts for relatives. Be sure to involve the children in this exciting process.

Great Wednesday

Morning. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served in the church for the last time.

Day. Preparing the house for Easter: doing a general cleaning.

According to church canons, the name Maundy Thursday has nothing to do with restoring order.

Therefore, you should not go in cycles in the fact that the cleaning in the house needs to be done on this particular day. It is desirable that by Thursday your house is already shining.

Evening. Confession before Easter in the church.

Maundy Thursday

Morning. The church hosts the liturgy of Basil the Great, as well as the memory of the Last Supper.

Evening. Matins of Good Friday begins in the church yesterday, during which the 12 Passion Gospels are read.

Those who bake Easter cakes at the end of the week put a dough for baking. This can be done after the service.

Morning. Many people bake Easter cakes and paint eggs on Friday morning. If the pastries are already ready, put the cottage cheese Easter.

Day. After 14:00, Vespers begins, during which the Shroud is carried out.

Evening. Great Saturday Matins begins, during which the Burial of the Shroud and the procession take place.

Holy Saturday

Morning. The Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the church. Immediately after the service, the coverage of the Easter meal begins.

Important! Baskets can be blessed throughout the day. The consecration will continue on Sunday.

Day. Getting the house ready for the holidays. We carry out light cleaning, decorate the premises, prepare gifts. Don't forget to buy fresh flowers. This can be done on the way home from church after the morning service.

Evening. Getting ready for the Easter service, which starts at 23:30.

It is always much more difficult for working women to make plans. And to give unequivocal advice on how to prepare for Easter with your own hands, in this case it will be incorrect.

In that case, you will have to start preparing in advance, without leaving all the important things for the last week.

10-14 days before Easter

At least two weeks before Easter, you can draw up a menu, write a list of necessary products, think over gifts. Put all plans and lists on paper. This will make it easier to navigate in the future.

At the same time, you can gradually start preparing at home for the holiday. Do not put off for the last week such things as cleaning winter clothes, putting things in order in the kitchen, in papers, in closets.

7-8 days before Easter

Even the windows can be washed and the curtains washed on the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

Make big purchases directly on Saturday or Sunday. Given that it is on weekends that various traveling fairs are held, where you can buy high-quality farm products, without which good pastries simply won’t work: Easter cakes and Easter, it’s better to buy everything these days.

5-6 days before the holiday

On Monday-Tuesday, finish all major cleaning work, and start preparing jewelry and gifts. Think of activities for kids. Let them also make crafts that can be used for home decoration or gifts.

On Tuesday, check if everything is ready for baking Easter cakes. Take out the molds, check the availability of products according to the recipe, check for powder, decorations, baking paper and other little things. Immediately check the availability of ingredients for coloring eggs.

On Wednesday, buy all the missing little things for baking Easter cakes. Be sure to plan a route and make a list so you don't forget anything.

In the evening, wash baking dishes, prepare dried fruits, peel nuts. If you plan to bake Easter cakes on Thursday, soak dried fruits.

Try to finish cleaning the house, especially things that require male help.

On a clean Thursday morning, it is better to start with a shower before dawn. Immediately put the dough for Easter cakes. After work we bake.

And let the family help to finish the cleaning: wipe the dust, vacuum, wash the floors. If there are no assistants, you will have to do the cleaning in between baking.

On Good Friday, it is better not to plan household chores. A good reason to visit the church. Moreover, on this day the Shroud is taken out, and the procession takes place.

And in the evening you can paint the eggs. Some housewives transfer the baking of Easter cakes on this day.

We do cosmetic cleaning in the house and decorate it. It remains to make purchases of perishable products: meat, fish and vegetables, fruits.

We make blanks for holiday dishes and fold the Easter basket. If everything for the Easter basket is ready, you can visit the church to bless the products. But many prefer to attend church directly on Easter.

It doesn't matter in what order you do your homework. Various prohibitions, such as baking Easter cakes on Good Friday or cleaning the house before Maundy Thursday, have no basis.

Do not worry that you do not have time or did not do well enough.

After all, Easter is, first of all, a celebration of the triumph of life over death, compassion over indifference, good over evil.

Therefore, devoting the entire week of preparation for Easter to a marathon of cleaning and cooking is not worth it. It is better to do less things, but keep your peace of mind and good mood.

Believe me, if you don’t have time to wash the windows before Easter this year or cook 2-3 dishes instead of 15, the holiday will come anyway. Learn to live in harmony with your inner world and see the beautiful, believe in miracles and receive spiritual satisfaction from life. After all, this is what the great feast of the Resurrection teaches us.

How to prepare for Easter: video

The video material tells about the great path to the culmination of the Lenten feat - Easter breaking the fast:

” a press conference was held on the topic: “Holy Week. How to properly prepare and spend Easter. The conference was attended by: Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, rector of the home church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana, Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov; Vladimir Romanovich Legoyda, Chairman of the Synodal Information Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. Nadezhda Ruslanovna Raeva, head of the nutrition supervision department of the TUFS department for supervision in the field of consumer protection and human well-being.

Archpriest Maxim Kozlov spoke about how Passion Week goes

- The week that has begun is called in the language of the Orthodox tradition the Great or Passion.

Holy Week, bearing in mind the Slavic meaning of this adjective, is most accurately translated into Russian as a suffering week, a week of suffering. This is passion not in the sense of the passion of passion, but passion in the sense of suffering, suffering, torment, what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ on the eve of Easter almost 2000 years ago.

In the worship of the Orthodox Church, each of these days is highlighted separately, but in general they can be divided into several cycles. For the first three days (Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday), day after day, we go almost by the hours of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ, with several key points highlighted. Yesterday it was about the drying up of the fig tree, the tree to which Christ approached, saw that it did not bear fruit, and predicted to him that it would wither. The interpreters of this place, the holy fathers, say that this was a very important action. Christ showed the people around him that He, as the Son of God, can not only do good, but can also punish. But at the same time, being a philanthropist, he chose not a person for punishment, which he could do, but a soulless creation - a tree.

The second moment, which is especially remembered these days, is a sinner woman who, having bought precious oil and sat down at the feet of the Savior, anointed his feet with this oil, preparing him for a future burial. We can say about such a curious moment associated with the place. We are sometimes reproached for gender chauvinism, which is not in Orthodoxy, the woman occupies a secondary place.

It must be said that for a number of the most important Holy Week liturgy, very important hymns were written by a woman, the nun Cassia, who lived in the 9th century from the birth of Christ. The main hymns of the Great Wednesday were just written by this nun.

Wednesday is the day of remembrance of the betrayal of Judas, the closest disciple of the Savior, who, nevertheless, bears in his heart the plan to commit this villainy. For all the significance of the first three days of Holy Week, the next three are undoubtedly the most important.

Maundy Thursday is the day when Christ, together with his disciples, both for them and for all who will bear the name of Christians in the future, establishes what will become the center of the life of the historical Christian church for two thousand years and will be such as we believe throughout the history of the earth. The Sacrament, which is called the Eucharist in Greek, or in Russian translation - Thanksgiving. It is called differently - when, under the guise of bread and wine, a Christian unites with God himself in an extremely real way, becoming one with him not only mentally, but also bodily. This is a great gift of God, which is perceived by the entire Christian historical tradition not only as the center of Christian worship, but also the life of the church in this earthly world, and this event is associated precisely with Thursday. This day is also called Maundy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday.

About some superstitions that in the popular mind accompany church tradition, but are in no way connected with it

- There is a strange, sometimes for some reason replicated idea that Pure (Great) Thursday, when you need to wash everything.

The development of thought is easy to imagine, but no special day beyond the bath, in which you definitely need to immerse yourself in bath foam and also do a general cleaning of the house, is not implied. Church tradition does not presuppose concentration on everyday life either on this day or in the following days, but directly warns us against overestimating everyday preparations.

The evening of Holy Thursday is associated with the service, which is also very famous, including in the Russian literary tradition, repeatedly described in classical works, this, or service, where the sufferings of Christ are remembered in sequence - at this service, 12 passages from all four evangelists are read in sequence, then the narrative Holy Scripture, which tells about the events of the earthly life of Christ from Thursday evening to Saturday morning, when he was already in the tomb. And these 12 passages are called the 12 gospels. This, I repeat, does not in any way mean an increase in the number of evangelists or the introduction of some kind of apocrypha into worship. This is a very significant service, just like the Thursday morning service, to which everyone who is somehow aware of themselves as church Orthodox Christians is called to participate, and, of course, those who do not recognize themselves as church, but strive to join the church tradition are also invited.

The last week before Easter is called Passion Week. These days we remember the suffering that Jesus Christ took for our salvation. This week is the most severe of all Great Lent.

All Passion Week is being prepared for. Starting with chores around the house and ending with preparations for the festive Easter meal.

Passion Week Calendar

* On Monday, they put their homes in order - paint, clean, repair. On this day, they start cleaning the house. Of particular importance is the cleaning of windows. It was believed that clean windows let the light of the holiday into the house.

* On Tuesday, you need to prepare clothes - wash, iron, hem.

According to ancient customs, “juicy milk” was supposed to be made on this day. To do this, early in the morning, even before dawn, hemp and flaxseed were mixed, crushed in mortars and diluted with water. Such "milk" was given to all livestock to protect it from all sorts of diseases.

* On Wednesday, all chores are completed. We need to put things in order in the house, take out all the garbage. On Wednesday they buy eggs that will be painted for Easter.

In the middle of Holy Week, our great-great-grandmothers collected melt water, diluted Thursday salt in it, which was left over from last year, and sprinkled their homes and livestock so that there would be no evil eye all year.

* The largest number of rites falls on Maundy Thursday.

Maundy Thursday is also called Clean. On this day, it is customary to carefully clean the house and decorate it, but not to take revenge (you can sweep from Monday to Wednesday) because of the fear of "clogging the eyes of Christ lying in the tomb." Some clean water should be stored for Sunday to wash your face with it.

On this day, cakes are baked. Kulich symbolizes the body of Christ, and its production should be treated with particular reverence. Before baking it, you need to pray to cleanse your soul and thoughts.

On Maundy Thursday, you need to prepare your body for Easter, wash yourself thoroughly, especially for children and the sick, because water on Maundy Thursday washes away all diseases and protects from troubles.

On this day, while burning the stoves, they burn the salt or heat it in the oven, and then everyone in the family needs to take a handful of salt and pour it into one bag. This salt is removed and stored behind the icons, and it is called Thursday salt. She is treated, for example, they warm up a stuffy nose or lower back, chest (during a severe cough). Also, this salt is diluted in water and sprinkled on housing from the evil eye.

On Maundy Thursday, the elders advise cutting the hair of a one-year-old child for the first time, especially for girls. Then they will be thick and beautiful.

* The saddest day of the week is Friday. On this day Christ died. A particularly strict fast is observed, no entertainment is allowed. Washing, sewing, cutting or stabbing is considered a great sin.

On Friday, Easter cakes are also baked and boiled eggs begin to be colored. The water in which Easter eggs were boiled was not poured out before, women washed their faces with it in order to have a beautiful complexion.

* On Passion Saturday, preparations are underway for the Easter festive meal. Eggs are dyed on this day. For Easter eggs, red is mainly used, as it symbolizes the blood of Christ. Painted eggs, Easter cakes, Easter were carried to the temple to consecrate. they start from Thursday, but who did not have time to paint these days, you can do it on Saturday. Saturday is the last day to paint eggs or bake Easter cakes. They don't do it on Sunday.

The husks from the eggs are not thrown away, but belong to the river and are launched into the water. It is believed that this should bring good luck.

Holy Sunday of Christ

Waking up on Sunday, instead of “Good morning”, it is customary for all their relatives and friends to say: “Christ is Risen!” You need to start the day by washing with Thursday water, putting something silver (a spoon or a coin) there. Such washing will bring beauty and prosperity.

And then the Easter feast. It begins with consecrated eggs. You need to take one egg, divide it by the number of people who are at your table. Everyone should eat a small piece. It is believed that this first egg strengthens the family.