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Easter ways, whys

From sunrise service to egg hunts to fancy baskets, the day of traditions is celebrated.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published April 16, 2006

Take one basket, line it with crisp linen and fill it with homemade Polish sausage, ham, the Easter version of babka, the traditional sweet Polish bread, salt, pepper, horseradish, butter and, of course, dyed eggs.

The day before Easter, the carefully arranged basket was taken to the priest to be properly blessed.

Now 87 years old, the American-born St. Petersburg resident still adheres to the custom.

"It's a very, very old tradition ... and the Polish people really believe in it,'' said Cisniewicz, organist at St. Mary's Polish National Catholic Church in Pinellas Point.

There are better known seasonal customs, of course, among them colored eggs, Easter bunnies and sunrise services

The Rev. Tom Norton of Christ United Methodist Church in downtown St. Petersburg said the idea for sunrise services came from the Bible, which tells of the two Marys' visit to Jesus' tomb.

"Early in the morning, they went to the tomb to finish the burial rites for Jesus and when they got to the tomb, of course, they discovered that the stone had been rolled back and he had risen. So early on Easter Sunday morning, we gather to remember his resurrection on that first Easter day,'' Norton said.

Today's sunrise service at his church, 467 First Ave. N, will be on the roof, which Norton said, offers an almost unobstructed view of Tampa Bay. It'll begin at 6:45. Later services will be at 8:15, 9 and 10:55. "It will be a busy day,'' he said.

The Pascal candle is an important tradition of mostly liturgical denominations such as the Catholic and Episcopal churches. The tall, stout white candle usually is lit from a new fire and blessed at the Easter vigil service on Saturday or on Easter morning. It signifies the light of Christ.

At St. Mary's, 2175 Pinellas Point Drive S, Cisniewicz and other parishioners will have had their Easter baskets blessed on Saturday by Father John Sielchan.

Noting that eggs were a springtime symbol long before Christianity, Sielchan said back then Eastern Europeans put colored eggs on the graves of their ancestors to symbolize new life.

For Polish Christians, each item in the Easter basket is symbolic, he said. The butter usually is shaped like a lamb, symbolizing Jesus as the lamb of God, he said.

Sophie Gasztold who travels from New Port Richey to St. Mary's, makes her own kielbasa for her Easter basket and as is traditional, uses food from the blessed basket for breakfast on Easter morning.

These days Cisniewicz doesn't make her own sausage, but bakes the Polish Easter bread, using about a dozen eggs and topping it with a glaze and jelly beans.

Today after the 8:30 Mass of the Resurrection, she will gather with other St. Mary's parishioners for a hearty breakfast in the church hall.

Even dieters must partake of one important item on the menu, Sielchan said. "You must share a piece of egg as the source of life, he said.''

[Last modified April 16, 2006, 08:35:00]