Crockham Hill February 2025 Newsletter - Flipbook - Page 13
mother wore a necklace of eggs for a dance at David Salomon9s House in
Southborough. A small one got lost so I arranged to go and search for it.
Imagine my relief when the caretaker met me with the egg in the palm of
his hand; he had found it between the floorboards in the hall!
As elsewhere, Russians celebrate the end of
Lent with rich food. My childhood memories
include two special Easter foods, kulich and
paskha, my mother and I continuing to follow
grandmother9s recipes. Kulich is a rich yeast
cake, similar to Italian panettone but a heavier
mix. Our family version is finished with almonds
Russian Easter Kulich
and an egg glaze; most articles on the internet
suggest that it is iced. I am still struggling to bake the perfect kulich, risen
perfectly and baked through but not burnt!
Paskha is a rich cheese which I describe as a 8heart
attack on a plate9. I prepare my own cheese from milk
and yoghurt and blend it with butter, sugar, sour
cream, egg yolks, ground almonds, vanilla, currants
and mixed peel. The mix is wrapped in cheesecloth and
pressed in a mould to remove moisture. The whole
Russian Easter Paskha
process takes about a week. Paskha is traditionally a
tall pyramid decorated with the orthodox cross and the letters XB
(pronounced 8kha ve9) for 8Christ is risen9. I have two sets of wooden
moulds, one from my grandmother, and the other made by my brother.
It is widely known that Orthodox Easter does not always coincide with
Western Easter. In writing this article, I discovered that we are celebrating
the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea in AD325, when the
calculation of Easter was defined in order to bring unity across Christian
churches. Easter Day is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after
the spring equinox, with the spring equinox defined as 21st March. This
calculation still applies to both Western and Orthodox churches. However,
the Orthodox church calculates the spring equinox using the older Julian
calendar, and as a result its Easter Day usually falls on a different day. In
2025, all Christians are celebrating Easter on the same day, 20th April; a
fitting tribute to 1700 years of unity.
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