Hello to everyone! Easter week is already in its midst, and it is Great and Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday or best known as Maundy Thursday. According to the Bible, it marks the Last Supper of Jesus Christ together with His Apostles. In Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and some other Slavic countries this day is called Clean Thursday, and it is traditionally considered to be the day when people clean up their houses and bodies. In accordance to the ancient traditions, all Ukrainian and Russian ladies clean carefully their houses preparing to the Easter feast – they wash the windows, they get rid of all mess and useless things, they cut their hair and nails short. And, of course, this day is the first when Ukrainian brides cook Kulichi, or traditional Easter bread, and paint Easter eggs, so-called pysankas to be blessed in a church then.

Easter kulich is the symbol of Orthodox Easter. In fact, it is tall sweet bread (sometimes it is much more similar to cake), has a cylindrical or round shape and looks really fantastic. One can cook it with some dried fruit such as raisins or dried apricots, it has a sugar glazed topping with rainbow-colored sprinkles. Russian housewives bake Easter kulich in paper forms or special molds (one can use empty metal cans, for example from green beans or sugar corn). They make a lot of Easter breads varied of different shapes and sizes. Usually little Easter cakes, some sort of mini-kulich, are made for the kids, in order they have their own special feast bread.

There are some strict traditions to make a true, “right” kulich. As a matter of fact, it is believed to be the center of the Easter table, surrounded by painted eggs. It is traditionally eaten only once a year on Easter, so one must know how difficult it could be to bake. There are dozens of different recipes for usual sweet kulich, homemade cheese paskha (a word that usually is associated with kulich and is homonymic with the word Easter in Russian). Decorated with sprinkles or “XB” letters (it means “Christ is risen”), kulich should be baked in a good mood only, after saying a prayer and making the sigh of the cross.