Polish Easter Blessed Breakfast
About Polish Easter Blessed Breakfast
When is the Polish Easter Blessed Breakfast? This feast is always held on Easter Sunday morning
For the Polish culture, Easter is the highest holy day of the church year. After all, it is a celebration of Christ rising from the dead, and our promise of eternal life in Heaven. The Polish Blessed Breakfast on Easter morning is a very special event. After fasting for 40 days during lent, the enormous breakfast is an inviting feast, that’s certain to put back on some of the weight loss in fasting.
But first, let’s dial back to the day before… Holy Saturday. On the morning of Holy Saturday, families fill a basket with portions of items for serving at the breakfast on Easter morning. This includes bread, meats, eggs, sweet bread, and more. It even includes salt, pepper, butter and horseradish, and wine. Yes, breakfast includes wine!
In Christian churches with large Polish communities, there is a special Holy Saturday morning ceremony. If you have never attended, it is a sight to behold. Just prior to the ceremony the church is abuzz with cheerful conversation and laughter. After all, the long Lenten season is past, and the celebration of tomorrow’s Easter is truly something to put you in a celebratory mood. In addition, outside of the church walls, spring is breaking out all over. As the ceremony is about to begin, the participants open all of the items in their baskets, in preparation for their being blessed. The pleasant aroma is all but overwhelming.
The ceremony is relatively short. A priest says a few prayers and blesses the baskets with holy water. Upon completion of the ceremony, the congregation re-wraps the food and takes the now-blessed basket home.
Spreading the Easter Blessed Breakfast Tradition
My Polish mother-in-law asked the priest in her non-polish parish to start this tradition. He gladly obliged. Only a few people showed up for that first event, not many more than our immediate family. As the years passed, it grew in popularity. Now, children bring in their Easter baskets to receive a blessing.
Then, when my mother-in-law passed, my wife helped to establish a Blessing of the baskets on the Saturday before Easter at our church. Again, attendance grew with each passing year.
We encourage you to start this wonderful tradition at your church.
The Polish Easter Blessed Breakfast Tradition
After Easter Sunday morning mass, it is time for the traditional Polish Easter breakfast.
- In preparing for breakfast, take all of the foods from the blessed basket. Cut Them into enough pieces for everyone who is there.
- Pour the blessed wine back into the wine jug or bottle, so all of the wine is now blessed. Then, pour the wine is then into decanters or directly into individual glasses at the table.
- Pass the dishes with the blessed food around the table. Each person takes a piece.
- Next, pass the blessed salt, pepper, horseradish, and butter around the table.
- No one is allowed to taste the blessed food until everything has been passed around.
- Now, you begin with the sliced blessed egg (no one seems to know why this is first).
- After eating the egg slice, raise your wine glasses in a toast.
- After the toast, anything on your plate is fair game to eat.
Notes:
- Different families may have differences in the foods and variations of the traditions.
- People with health issues or allergies, can pass on salt, gluten, high-carb foods, or nuts.
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