05.4.2007

ORTHODOX BULGARIANS COLOUR EGGS ON HOLY THURSDAY

Orthodox Bulgarians celebrate on April 5 the Holy Thursday and keep alive the tradition of coloring eggs bright red, the symbol of Easter for Orthodox Christians all over the world.

The eggs are colored on Holy Thursday, which commemorates the Last Supper, held the evening before the Crucifixion. The eldest woman in the house has the privilege of dying the eggs.

The ritual of cracking the eggs takes place before the Easter lunch. The eggs are cracked after the midnight service and during the next days. One egg is cracked on the wall of the church (and this is the first egg eaten after the long Great Fast). Each person selects his/her egg. The people take turns tapping their egg against the eggs of others, and the person who ends up with the last unbroken egg is believed to have a year of good luck.

On Thursday loaves of bread are also made - ritual and ordinary. The bread is called "kolache" or "kozunak". One of these Easter breads is specially decorated with one or more (but an odd number) of red eggs are put into it. This bread is taken to church on Saturday evening when a special sequence of services takes place.