Easter Meal: How to Start the Festive Feast.

Today, April 20, the Christian world celebrates the great and bright Holiday of the Resurrection of Christ. After the end of Lent, the faithful pay special attention to the first meal, adhering to ancient traditions and rituals.

'Glavkom' tells what should be eaten first during the Easter meal.

On Easter, after the church service, the faithful usually start the feast with blessed foods. The conversation should begin with the Easter egg. According to Ukrainian traditions, the first thing to eat after returning from church is a blessed boiled egg - the Easter egg. This symbolizes new life and resurrection. There is a custom where family members knock their Easter eggs together; whoever's egg remains whole will be happy throughout the year. Usually, after the Easter egg, they taste the kulich - the ritual bread that symbolizes the body of Christ. In some regions, the host cuts the kulich and shares it in pieces among all those present. Then they move on to other blessed foods: meat products, cheese, butter, and other treats. Before starting the meal, the family reads a prayer. Special attention is paid to leftovers of blessed food: they are not thrown away, either finished or buried in the ground in places where no one walks, so as not to step on the holy. Also, 'Glavkom' has prepared a large selection of the best greetings for this great and bright holiday in poetry, prose, and bright postcards. By the way, the Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine Epiphanius, recorded a video address on the occasion of the great Christian holiday of the Resurrection of the Lord. Metropolitan Epiphanius congratulated Ukrainians on Easter. He began with the words: 'Today, on the day of Christ's resurrection, we renew our hopes for the victory of truth and goodness.'