Orthodox Easter

Discover some of the traditions and habits related to Orthodox Easter, that were revealed to me when I started dating my boyfriend.

Having a boyfriend from Romania, means Easter it’s celebrated in a different date than mine. Mine corresponds to the Catholic Easter, which was on the 4th of April. His it’s Orthodox, which was celebrated yesterday, 2nd of May. When I met him, I was curious to know more about it, what are the traditions and main dishes.

Orthodox Easter has a fasting period of 40 days before Easter, where they don’t eat any type of animal food, but on Fridays an exception is allowed. On Catholic Easter, especially where I from, in Portugal, our fasting means not eating meat on Fridays, it’s that simple.

Because of Orthodox fasting, when Easter day arrives, food is celebrated with all the splendour that it’s possible. They can again delight themselves without restrictions. Their main dishes are red eggs, boeuf salad (although boeuf in French means beef, this salad is actually made with chicken, so the best translation would be chicken salad), cold rabbit stew with olive, sarmale (pickled cabbage leaves dumplings) are always on the table. Traditional cake can be with sour cream or cottage cheese or simply chocolate and its called pasca , lamb cooked with red wine in the oven is usually there as well and the drob which can be characterized as a meatloaf that just instead of meat, use lungs, liver, heart and kidneys of lamb and it’s mixed with loads of green fresh ingredients such as parsley.

Paste Fericit (Happy Easter)! 🐣

---

In case you never had contact with Orthodox Easter, I hope my article can inspire you to discover more about it and not only, may inspire you as well to be more open to new cultures, traditions and habits from all around the world.

Wish you a week fulfilled with smiles and motivation to overcome any obstacles Xx