How many eggs should be on the Easter table. What should be on the Easter table

In 2019, Easter is celebrated by the Orthodox Church on April 28. By this bright day, it is customary to prepare traditional Easter dishes and richly set the festive table.

However, it is not enough to prepare delicious food for Easter, you need to present them beautifully. We offer original ideas for decorating the Easter table that will help you cope with this task in the best possible way.

When deciding how to decorate the Easter table, consider the symbolism of flowers. White is a symbol of purity and divine light, red is the color of love, which personifies the boundless love of Christ for people. Yellow is a symbol of joy and light, green is the awakening of nature and freshness.

To liven up the interior of your kitchen or dining room, hang a few crafts in the form of painted eggs on bright ribbons or a garland of cardboard eggs, chickens, lambs and other holiday attributes on the wall. Put an elegant cover in the form of a chicken or a lamb on the teapot.

Another idea for decorating an Easter table is decorating with an Easter wreath. It can be placed in the center of the table, placing an Easter cake in the middle, and laying colored eggs around the perimeter. Or hang such a wreath on the wall, window opening, furniture doors.

What is the best way to decorate the Easter table?

You can put a large glass vase in the center of the table, putting chopped corrugated green paper in it, and painted eggs on it. Or put them on a large beautiful dish, pouring red beans or lentils on it.

And you can serve eggs in coasters by placing small bunches of flowers in them. An equally spectacular option is to place a bunch of fresh herbs in a bright rosette or a small decorative bucket, and put a colored egg in the center.

Miniature will look original quail eggs in bird nests made of twigs and straw.

How to properly set the table for Easter? Place blooming willow branches and spring-blooming shrubs in vases.

You can crochet several bright flowers from colored yarn and string them on dry twigs or decorate the branches with paper flowers, hang decorative painted eggs or other figurines made of paper, fabric or beads on the branches.

What should be on the table at Easter?

On this day, ritual dishes are served at the table - Easter cottage cheese, Easter cakes, larks in the form of birds, Easter lambs, pastries in the form of crosses, cookies with the inscription "ХВ" (Christ is Risen), etc.

For serving, it is better to use colored dishes, a tablecloth and napkins. The table is decorated with fresh or bright paper flowers, fresh herbs, figurines of cockerels, larks, doves and lambs.

Easter tableware can be decorated with paper napkins by cutting chickens, hares or flowers out of them. Please note that cutlery and dishes are not cleared from the table all day, because on Easter it is customary to visit friends and relatives until the evening, treat yourself and treat others.

This Sunday, April 8, all followers Orthodox Church will celebrate one of the most important religious holidays of the year - Easter. Preparation for Easter begins a week before the holiday itself: the house is cleaned (clean Thursday), some dishes are prepared and eggs are painted. People try to organize everything in such a way that they don’t do any work on the holiday itself, but devote themselves to celebrating and, of course, attending church services.

The main ritual dishes for Easter are eggs painted in different colors, Easter cakes and cottage cheese Easter.

Painted eggs are directly a symbol of the tomb and the resurrection of Christ. Dead shell outside and life inside. Traditionally, eggs were dyed red, symbolizing the blood of Christ, but later came the custom of painting eggs in different colors and even artistic painting on them. In the world today there are numerous museums of the so-called Easter eggs - painted eggs. This is, of course, not food, but real art. At home, eggs are most often dyed by boiling in onion skins, giving them a characteristic brown color. It is customary to consecrate such eggs in the church before eating. By the way, it is customary to paint eggs in advance - a couple of days before Easter itself, and there is - another week after it.

My late grandmother told how in the Belarusian villages they began to collect eggs for Easter almost a few weeks before the holiday, and on Bright Sunday they walked down the street, stuffing their pockets full of them, and bumped into each other. Such a game was called "christening", and the winner in it was the one whose egg did not break as a result of the battle. He also took the winner's egg for himself. After the holiday, when the number of eggs in the house did not allow them to be eaten in their pure form, they prepared okroshka and green cabbage soup from them.

“The egg is applied to the whole creature,” says an ancient handwritten interpretation attributed in the old days to St. John of Damascus, “the shell is like the sky, the chaff is like clouds, the protein is like water, the yolk is like earth, and the dampness in the middle of the egg is like in the world sin".

Another well-known symbol of Easter is Easter cake. Easter cake is special kind ceremonial festive bread, which is traditionally baked from yeast dough on Maundy Thursday, that is, two days before Easter. On Saturday, on the eve of the holiday, it is also consecrated in the church. Kulich is a kind of church artos - large leavened bread, its folk, "home" variation. In Russian practice, arthos is a tall cylindrical bread, consecrated on the first day of Easter at the liturgy after the prayer behind the ambo, which is distributed to believers on Bright Saturday after reading the prayer and crushing.

Cooking Easter cake is also a real sacrament in itself. Its main feature is not the ingredients, but the correct cooking technology. The preparation of Easter cake should be taken only with a good mood, then the Easter cake will turn out to be successful, and next year everything will be safe in the house.

Cottage cheese Easter is another central dish of the festive Easter table. To prepare a cottage cheese Easter, you need a special detachable pastry box in the shape of a truncated pyramid, consisting of 4 planks. The curd mass is placed in a pastry box and squeezed out, acquiring the form truncated pyramid, which symbolizes the place of the crucifixion and death of Christ. Among other things, cottage cheese Easter is an excellent cottage cheese dessert with the addition of dried fruits and nuts, which will appeal to both adults and children.

In general, Easter is considered a collective holiday. It is celebrated widely and cheerfully - with festivities, egg fights and obligatory treats for friends and neighbors. On this day, they certainly bake a lot of pies, buns, buns and other sweet dough products and give them to all nice people. The more generous you are at Easter, the more successful the next year will be for you. Joy must be shared with loved ones, not forgetting, of course, about those in need. The very ritual of congratulating on Easter, when people kiss each other three times on the cheeks, saying "Christ is risen", shows us that kindness and attention to others are important elements of the holiday.

And, of course, in addition to pastries and desserts, the festive table must certainly be filled with main dishes that please the eye and stomach. Here is an example list:

• aspic and jelly (and Easter in Slavic countries does not always fall on warm spring days, sometimes snow can still lie on Easter);
• baked poultry meat (whole baked chicken, duck or goose is one of the main delicacies of Russian and not only Russian cuisine);
• boiled pork and sausages (where without meat? Cattle used to be slaughtered especially for Easter);
• vegetable salads (if, nevertheless, Easter coincided with the active onset of spring);
• pickles (remnants of winter stocks, if fresh vegetables did not have time to ripen);
• pies with a variety of fillings;
• house wines;
• sbitni.

To put it simply, it was customary for Easter, and it remains today, to put on the table all the best and most delicious that is in the house. There is no better occasion for a hostess to show off her culinary skills than Easter. After all, before that it was exhausting great post, and after that, the spring suffering will begin, when it will no longer be up to the holidays. So Easter is such an occasion to stop, have fun, relax after the winter and get back to work. Easter is the king of days, as the saying goes.

Traditionally, an especially rich festive table is served for Easter. Previously, it was supposed to have 48 dishes - according to the number of days of the past post. Now it is believed that there may be fewer of them, the main thing is diversity.

From cakes to liqueurs

Holiday symbols. On the table, there must be either Easter cottage cheese, as well as krashenki or pysanky.

Meat. There are no restrictions here: you can cook or buy several dishes of pork, beef, chicken, homemade sausage, boiled pork and lard.

Salads. Among the abundance of "heavy" dishes, they are required. For their preparation, all the greens available at this time of the year will fit: cabbage, sorrel, wild garlic, green onions.

Snacks. Put on the table a variety of snacks from vegetables and pickles, herring, fried and aspic fish, jelly, roast with mushrooms.

Beverages. It is also better to cook them yourself - uzvar, jelly, compote. As for alcohol, it is better to limit yourself to a glass or a couple of glasses of homemade liquor (tincture). It is better not to lean on high-grade drinks on the Bright Holiday.

What is in the oven, swords on the table. Photo: http://hochu.ua

In Western Ukraine, it is customary to put a lamb figure on the Easter table, molded from dough or cut out of butter.

Both clergy and doctors agree that one should not overeat on the bright holiday of Sunday.

Thursday salt

In ancient times, on the night of Maundy Thursday or in the morning of this day, the so-called Thursday, or Black salt was prepared. To do this, they took coarse rock salt, mixed it with kvass, cabbage leaves and herbs, and put it in the oven. There it turned into ash, which was used to flavor hard-boiled eggs, bread with vegetable or butter, green salads, etc., and was also used instead of activated carbon, for the treatment of skin and other diseases. But before that, it was consecrated along with Easter cakes and (but even in the “unconsecrated” form it is very useful).

On the night of Maundy Thursday prepare Thursday, or Black salt

It was believed that this salt has magic power and does not lose healing properties during a year. In addition, black salt is very tasty, and it contains a number of minerals (potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iodine, chromium). And to satisfy the need for salt, it needs much less than usual.

Based on bread

Mix soaked rye or Borodino bread with coarse rock salt (for 1 kg of salt 5 kg of bread), place in an oven or oven heated to 250 ° C, and cook until the bread turns black. Together with bread, you can add some spicy herbs (oregano, mint) to the salt. Grind the cooled mixture with your hands and sift through a sieve. Pour the remaining salt in the sieve into jars, consecrate during the festive service along with Easter cakes and eggs, and use instead of the usual one.

Advice. After you put the salt in the oven, it is recommended to read the prayer “Our Father” three times.

You can't cook Thursday salt in the microwave.

If you have been fasting for a long time, you need to understand that during this time some metabolic processes in the body "rebuilt" for the food that you used, and weaned about the one that was not in your diet. Therefore, the most important rule now is not to overeat.

In addition, you should adhere to the following recommendations.

Avoid very fatty, fried, smoked and spicy foods.

Gradually introduce animal protein (meat, poultry, eggs, dairy) into the diet. On the first day, it is better to eat no more than 150-200 g of these products, and it is best to start with fermented milk.

You should not eat a lot of eggs - 1-2 pieces will be enough. It is important to remember that there are eggs in Easter cakes.

Alcohol is allowed on Easter, but if you don't have a sense of proportion, it's best to avoid it. Let's drink some wine.

Drink plenty between meals - this will help the body work properly and faster.

It is better that in the first days after fasting, fasting food still prevails.

Eat more fish, vegetables, fruits, whole grains.

Do not rush to take medications that promise to relieve stomach discomfort during a hearty meal. Instead, it's better to remember that "everything is good in moderation."

For many centuries, the most important holiday in spring is Easter itself. As a rule, the whole Orthodox world celebrates this holiday. It is worth paying attention to the fact that this holiday has its own special meaning. It lies in the fact that it is during this period in nature that everything is renewed and reborn. With the advent of this holiday, Lent also ends. Throughout its length, the Orthodox people adhered to strict fasting. On Easter Eve, festive dishes appeared on every table. It is worth noting that each of them had its own special meaning. All treats that are put on the table on a holiday are a symbol of the victory of eternal life directly over death.

Preparation for the holiday

The forerunner of such a holiday as Easter is the fast week. It is forbidden to eat meat, dairy, fish food throughout its entire length. In addition, oil is not used plant origin. But, despite this large number of women, they begin to prepare for the celebration directly in the middle of the week. Right at this time, everything that is required for the festive table and Easter dishes is purchased. This is directly flour, cottage cheese, eggs, meat and other products. It is worth paying attention to the fact that before the festive Sunday all dishes must be ready and solemnly lit in the church. And only with the advent of morning, you can start breaking the fast. It is it that will mark the fact that Great Lent is over and the bright holiday of Easter has come.

Please note that the creation of a festive table must be approached very responsibly. After all, the Easter table should be decorated according to the holiday. As a decoration for the table, you can make artificial flowers with bright colors with your own hands. For many years, it was these flowers that housewives used to decorate Easter cakes and Easter cakes. As a rule, each housewife can make flowers of this type from colored paper or small remnants of fabric. Please note that children can also take part in the preparation of such decorations. You can always find a job for them. For example, children will do an excellent job of cutting an openwork napkin. Subsequently, you can put such napkins on the festive table.

As a rule, the most beautiful dishes and a snow-white tablecloth were prepared in advance for Easter. The very first flowers were also placed on the table that day. The entire table setting should have a light mood.

Easter table dishes

The menu of this bright holiday cannot do without the main components. This is directly Easter cake, colored eggs and cheese Easter. Without them, this holiday would not be complete. It is worth paying attention to the fact that there must be small figurines of animals on the festive table. There must be a small figurine of an Easter lamb on the table. As a rule, this figure is cut directly from butter and then decorated with colored glaze. It is the lamb that is the symbol of Jesus' sacrifice. After all, he gave his life in the name of saving the lives of all people.

In addition, a variety of meat dishes can stand on the ceremonial table. Please note that the honorable first place among all cooked dishes is directly baked ham. Very often, housewives on the menu include different dishes from turkey and veal. Also, dishes prepared from roast lamb and ham are perfect for the festive table. In addition, pay attention to the fact that there should be a large number of salads on the table. But fish dishes on this solemn day should not be on the table.

In ancient times, at least forty dishes were usually put on the table. This number corresponds to the number of days during which Great Lent lasted. As a rule, such a number of dishes is not a mandatory requirement for the festive table. It is very important that there are some symbols of this celebration on the table, which were consecrated in the church. It is worth noting that there should be a large number of kissels and compotes on the table. Such drinks are consumed directly by children with great pleasure.

The main attribute of the festive table

The peak of the culinary art of hostesses on this holiday is the Easter cake itself. It is placed in the center of the festive table. It is impossible even to imagine the Easter table without Easter cake. This Easter cake is a symbol of the fact that God is present in our world with you. It is also a symbol of the fact that God loves and cares for every person. It is worth noting that the Easter cake remains fresh throughout the week.

As a rule, the holiday cake is very sweet and tall. On top of the hostess, it is covered with icing sugar and sprinkled with colored crumbs or finely chopped candied fruits. It should be noted that at the top of each holiday cake there should be capital letters ХВ. This cake must be consecrated in the church. Subsequently, all guests and acquaintances are treated to pieces of this cake.

First of all, you should pay attention to the fact that any housewife takes great care of the dough that is prepared for Easter cake. In order for baked cakes to have an amazing taste, you will need to follow certain rules. You will need to start preparing the dough with a great mood. The thing is that it is the dough that can perfectly feel your mood. In the event that you are not in the mood, the dough may simply not rise. The first thing you need to prepare is the base for the cake. This is directly steam. For her take only fresh yeast. For the splendor of the Easter cake, the prepared flour must be sifted twice. For Easter cake, only the highest grades of flour are used. The secret of fluffy dough is quite simple. During sifting, the flour is saturated with oxygen, which makes the cake very lush.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that a large number of housewives cannot ensure that the cake is as loose as possible. For the friability of the cake, it is necessary to fill the existing forms only halfway. As soon as the cake is baked, it needs to be lightly sprinkled with water and covered with a towel. As a rule, at the request of the hostess, nuts, candied fruits, marshmallows are added to the dough.

Easter eggs

An equally important decoration of the solemn table are painted eggs, or as they are also called Easter eggs. With their help, the table looks as solemn as possible. For many centuries there is one tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. This is directly the exchange of eggs. As a rule, eggs for the festive table should be consecrated during the liturgy on the territory of the church. After that, Easter eggs are distributed to all friends. Previously, they were painted red. It was this color that was a symbol of the triumph of the Christian faith. To make the color of the eggs as saturated as possible, many women use onion peel when painting them. Currently, there are a very large number of food colors in stores that are intended for painting eggs for this big holiday.

It is worth noting that eggs for Easter were also very often painted by hand. These are truly masterpieces of art. All the patterns that were applied to them corresponded to the festive attire of the ministers of the church. At present, the painting of Easter eggs was a very interesting process. This is what kids love to do. On the ceremonial table, painted eggs take pride of place in the center of the table in the immediate vicinity of the Easter cake. Do not forget about Cahors, which should be on the festive table on this holiday. It is this wine that symbolizes the blood of Christ.

Easter is the brightest holiday. This celebration cannot leave indifferent any person on earth. Each housewife tries to prepare an unusual and beautiful table for this holiday. The traditions associated with this holiday have been carried by our people through the centuries. At all times, this Easter holiday was celebrated all over the world. Please note that traditions do not recommend visiting on the first day of Easter.

The most important spring holiday, which joyfully celebrates the entire Orthodox world, is Great Easter. It means the rebirth and renewal of all life in nature. With the advent of Easter comes the end of Lent, which lasted 40 long days, and festive Easter dishes appear on our tables, each of which is filled with a certain meaning. Traditional treats that appear on the table once a year symbolize the victory of eternal life over death.

The last, fasting week before Easter is considered the most strict, completely excluding meat, dairy foods, as well as fish and vegetable oil. However, starting from the middle of the week, experienced housewives begin to prepare for the bright holiday. These days, everything you need to prepare the main Easter dishes is bought - eggs, flour, cottage cheese, meat, etc. Immediately before Easter Sunday, the traditional dishes of the Easter table should already be ready for their solemn consecration in the church, which takes place on Saturday evening. Early in the morning, you can start breaking the fast, which will mark the end of strict fasting and the beginning of the holiday.

To create a cheerful Easter mood, you should think in advance how to decorate the Easter table.

With such decorations, the Easter table will look fun and festive.

You can make bright artificial flowers in advance with your own hands, which are traditionally decorated with Easter cakes and Easter. Having shown imagination, it is easy to make such flowers from colored paper, the remnants of bright fabrics. Children love to participate in the preparation for the holiday, for whom there is always something to do. For example, cut openwork paper napkins that will decorate the festive table, or paint eggs with beautiful patterns.

Prepare for table setting the most elegant dishes, a snow-white tablecloth. The table can also be decorated with fresh spring flowers. The whole atmosphere should create a special, light mood.

Images of an elegant Easter table can be seen from famous artists. Makovsky " Easter table»

Traditional Easter dishes

It is impossible to imagine the Easter menu without its main dishes, which appear on the table only once a year. This, of course, is Easter cake, curd Easter and colored eggs. Also on the festive table there should be animal figurines, among which the Easter lamb is a must. Carved from a piece of butter, simply laid out with colored icing on top of the cake, or baked in a special mold, the lamb is a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus, who gave his life to save people.

Easter lamb always has a place on the Easter table

In addition, various meat dishes are traditionally placed on the Easter table, among which the baked ham always takes the first place. The festive menu also includes dishes from turkey, veal, roast lamb, ham, various salads and cold appetizers. Among the variety of Easter treats, there is no fish and hot dishes.

An interesting fact: in ancient times, in rich families, it was customary to put forty dishes on the table, according to the number of days of Lent. Such an amount of treats is not a strict requirement for the Easter table. The main thing is that the symbols of Easter consecrated in the church be present on it.

Easter cake

A real miracle of culinary art, Easter cake is the center of the festive table, without which it is impossible to imagine this bright holiday. A symbol of the presence of God in our world, which takes care of every living being, the Easter cake stays fresh for several weeks. Fragrant, rich, sweet Easter cake should be tall, covered with sugar icing, which is sprinkled with multi-colored crumbs or chopped candied fruits. Also, on the top of the Easter cake, capital letters ХВ or a figurine of an Easter lamb can be laid out. It is customary to treat all friends and acquaintances with slices of consecrated Easter cake. strangers while in the temple and at home.

Kulich is a real miracle and a symbol of Easter

The dough for Easter cake is the subject of vigilant care of every housewife preparing for Bright Sunday. Starting from the night of Maundy Thursday, sweet dough for Easter cakes is put into which a piece of the soul is lovingly put in order to start baking on Good Friday. In order for Easter cakes to turn out especially tasty, you must follow some rules:

• start preparing the dough with a good mood, a pure soul, because it is known that the dough perfectly feels the emotions of the cook, and may not be suitable if you are out of sorts;
• for dough, use only fresh yeast, old or dried yeast is completely unsuitable for delicious baking;
• to make the cake airy, be sure to sift the premium flour several times, the secret is simple - as a result of oxygen saturation, the flour will make the cake more magnificent, and, of course, it must be dry;
• fill the form with dough halfway, then the cake will come out looser;
• Sprinkle the finished cake with water and cover with a clean towel.

If desired, you can add candied fruits, nuts, dried fruits or marshmallows to the dough for Easter cake, in general, what you like.

Curd Easter

Especially for the holiday of Bright Sunday, a special dish is prepared - curd Easter, which also has its own symbolism, rooted in the Holy Scriptures. The shape of Easter cottage cheese is a truncated tetrahedral pyramid, which is a symbol of the Holy Sepulcher. To prepare it, you definitely need a special wooden form - a pastor, on the inside of which the letters XB are carved, as well as various symbols associated with the suffering that Christ endured. These are a cross, a spear, flowers, sprouts, etc. After the curd mass is taken out of the paster, all these images will be clearly printed on the sides of the Easter. Keep in mind that raw paskha cooks faster but does not keep well. Custard Easter has a longer shelf life, but it will take longer to tinker with it.

Cottage cheese Easter - the crown of the Easter table

Cooking cottage cheese Easter also has its own characteristics and secrets:

• raw Easter is best done in small forms, such as bowls or plastic glasses;
• custard Easter is cooked in a water bath;
• you need to cook Easter only from fresh, well-pressed cottage cheese, rubbed through a sieve, or whipped with a blender;
• if you add raisins to Easter, then it is preferable to take light varieties, and it would be better if you grind it with cottage cheese;
• nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts) are best chopped with a knife.

Cottage cheese Easter prepared in advance will become the center of the Easter table. It can be decorated on top with icing and bright paper flowers.

colored eggs

Multi-colored painted eggs - krashenki, or painted with fancy patterns - pysanky, decorate the Easter table, making it festive and bright. The old custom of exchanging colored eggs has been known since the 1st century AD. Symbolizing the beginning of a new life, painted eggs are consecrated during the Easter Liturgy and distributed to relatives and friends. Traditionally, eggs were dyed red, which means the joy of rebirth and the triumph of the Christian faith. The correct saturated red color of the hostess is achieved using the usual onion peel. Today, with the help of various, natural dyes, as well as conventional store paints, eggs can be painted in all colors of the rainbow. Plain, unpatterned eggs are called eggs. These eggs have always been boiled; they are one of the main dishes for breaking the fast after a church, festive service.

Multi-colored krashenki create a special festive mood

Traditional pysanky, which are turned into real works of art by the hands of the artist, have always been raw before. The patterns on them had to correspond to the solemn vestments of the clergy, and were made only in certain colors. Today, coloring Easter eggs has become a fascinating process in which adults and children take part with pleasure. On the festive table, pysanky take pride of place next to the Easter cake, unlike krashenka, which are displayed on a separate dish.

An interesting fact: earlier in Russia, grains of wheat or oats were specially germinated on Easter Sunday in order to lay Easter eggs on green sprouts.

Making an Easter menu

The Easter table, the traditions and customs of which every Orthodox family tries to observe, should be plentiful, varied, with ceremonial dishes necessarily present on it. In addition to the three most important symbols, without which the Easter table is impossible, it must include different kinds meat, vegetables and herbs.

To put traditional dishes on the Easter table, each housewife collects and cherishes recipes throughout her life, passing them on by inheritance. Main course holiday menu can be boiled pork, baked piglet or stuffed bird.

The basis of the festive table is boiled pork

These snacks can be decorated with Easter paper flowers. Many housewives put jelly on the table, cooked from several varieties of meat and poultry. Various light salads, vegetables and desserts will also perfectly complement the main dishes. Desserts can be fruits, sweet pastries- Easter cakes, buns, pancakes, pies, etc. Everything appears every year large quantity gourmet dishes that are put on the festive table. Do not forget about drinks, without which there is also no celebration. Various types of mead are considered classic Russian drinks, which must be prepared in advance. Fruit drinks, jelly, compotes, sbitni - all these drinks are enjoyed by adults and children. Cahors red wine, which is consecrated in the church and symbolizes the blood of Christ in church rites, also occupies an honorable place among the festive dishes.

Bright Sunday is one of the few holidays that does not leave any person indifferent, even inveterate atheists are imbued with the bright spirit of this cheerful day. The festive table for Easter is so unusual and beautiful that it cannot be compared with any other table, even the most magnificent and bursting with all kinds of dishes. Our people were able to carry through the centuries all the traditions and symbols of this wonderful holiday.