Its almost Easter and our resident chef, Kuno Tschumi has given me an idea.... Lets share Easter (or other traditions) customs on our cooking page? Searching through my archives, I came across a piece I wrote for an Easter baking class I did - I originally took this from an old cookbook of mine (1973). EASTER CUSTOMS Easter, which falls between March 22 and April 25, is the most holy festival in the Christian year, although many of its customs are pagan in origin. The custom of exchanging eggs goes back to pre-Christian times when eggs, a a token of renewed life, were exchanged at the spring festivals. Hot cross buns possibly stem from the small wheat cakes eaten at the spring festivals in honour of Astarte, the Phoenician fertility goddess. Her Anglo-Saxon counterpart was Eostre. The cross on the buns, however, is of Christian origin. In orthodox households all over the world, housewives still prepare for the Easter feast: Eggs are boiled and decorated, cakes are baked an lamb is prepared for Easter Sunday. The Simnel cake, originally made by servant girls for Mothering Sunday in March, is now baked for Easter in Britain. Most other countries have their own Easter fare. The Russian housewives bakes yeast cakes, known as Kulich, which is wrapped in a spotless napkin to take to church for the priests blessing. In Portugal, the traditional sweet consists of fine strands of egg yolk called Angels Hair. The Italians bake Colomba, which is similar to the Russian Kulich. and the Sicilians make Casata alla Siciliana - layers of cake and ice cream covered in chocolate icing. In Poland, the Easter fare is a huge buffet, each item blessed by the priest. Place of honour goes to the Paschal lamb, made of butter or white sugar! South Africa has a lot of traditions left over by Colonials. We have hot cross buns, Easter eggs and we bake lots of goodies. We have however added our own pickled fish to our Good Friday menus - a mild curried, pickled fish. Please add your comments and your traditions or memories to our page - I look forward to lots of posts!
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 11:18:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015