An Easter basket, also known as a Paschal basket,
Traditional
Eastern Christianity
An Easter basket contains the foods traditionally forbidden to consume during Lent (meat, eggs, and dairy products) that is blessed by a priest for breaking the
Lent fast. This continues to be normative in Eastern Christianity and Easter baskets are typically blessed before the midnight service on
Holy Saturday, with their contents being consumed at the feast after the service.
Traditions for Easter in Eastern European countries often includes blessing of baskets.
Western Christianity
In parts Western Christianity, emphasis is placed on making a
Lenten sacrifice (giving up pleasures such as chocolate and cookies) rather than the traditional abstinence from meat, dairy products, and wine (though a few congregations have revived this practice);
as such, in countries of the Western world such as the United States, Easter baskets are filled with Easter eggs and sweets after having abstained from them during Lent.
Parents may hide eggs and/or baskets.
Poland
In
Poland,
Święconka or "the blessing of the Easter baskets" is a central tradition on
Holy Saturday.
The tradition dates back to the 13-14th century in its earliest form.
[Ks, Marian Pisarzak MIC. Błogosławienie pokarmów wielkanocnych. Kontekst paschalny i postny. op. cit. Błogosławieństwo pokarmów i napojów wielkanocnych w Polsce. Studium historyczno-liturgiczne. Warsaw 1979, p. 378. przypisy] The basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace napkin and decorated with sprigs of boxwood (bukszpan), the typical Easter evergreen. Baskets containing a sampling of Easter foods are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday. After the blessing, the baskets of food are then set aside until Easter morning.
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Modern innovations in the United States
Congregations and synods belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have made Easter baskets to be given to needy children or elderly persons.
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