Easter is the most important Orthodox holiday of the year. Great Lent ends by Easter, that’s why Easter table must be abundant, generous and beautiful according to the Orthodox traditions. What is the full menu should consist for Easter of so that at the same time would be consistent with the canons, and would be a delicious and satisfying enough to feed all those gathered for the holiday table?

If you are going to carefully follow the traditions, then be patient – you’ll have to prepare as many as four dozen dishes that symbolize the forty days of Lent. Needless to say, today this rule does not secured by anyone, and earlier all these dishes could be allowed only by wealthy Orthodox families. However, some of the dishes at Easter are required after all, as the Easter table can not be called the one without them.

Of course, among main dishes of Easter table are familiar from childhood cake (which is called paska), cottage cheese and painted Easter eggs.

Easter cake, according to tradition, must be consecrated in church, and only then put on the table. The basis for the cake is the butter yeast dough, so it will not grow stale for a long time – our ancestors even left a piece of cake for a case of illness, because they believed that the consecrated cake helps better than any medicine. There are no clear requirements ob how paska should look like, orthodox kitchen doesn’t dictate – except that it must be quite high. Paskas can be flavored with candied fruit, dried fruit and nuts on top of it or can be covered with icing or powdered. It is necessary to stop the Lent with such paska.

Curd Paska – another indispensable element of light-religious holiday. At its core, curd Easter – a curd with sour cream or cream, which is molded in the shape of a truncated pyramid. There are many recipes for cooking the curd paska.

Of course, it is impossible to imagine a holiday without colored eggs, and they are traditionally painted by onion skins, not food coloring. Painted eggs must be red color – is a tradition rooted in the biblical tradition of the march of Mary Magdalene to the Roman Emperor Tiberius with the news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of course, eggs dyed with other colors are beautiful decoration of Easter table, but if tradition is important to you – keep in mind that the eggs should be red.

All is clear with 3 main dishes – they are virtually needed to be on any table in this holiday. But what also to cook for Easter? Easter table almost doesn’t include hot dishes. By tradition, on the eve of Easter, the hostess had to go to all-night vigil, so she studied cooking in advance. It was also believed that on this holiday hostess should relax and have fun, and not to serve the guests, so she was laying a large table of cold dishes and sat together with the guests. And if the hot dishes were served at Easter then it was in a small amount. As a rule, it was fatty meats, which people missed during Lent.

It is also important to serve the Easter table correctly. Holiday table must be covered with the white (or other light-colored) cloth, and in its center should stand consecrated in the church Easter cake and surrounded by a scattering of colored eggs. The rest of the dishes (usually cold) must be carefully dotted around the table and, if possible, lavishly decorated with fresh herbs. From drinks only wine is allowed – assuming more hard drink was prohibited, because the evening people should go to church again.