Everyone around me asked for my Easter plans, whether I’m going home, how will I spend the break. And for the past 7 years I’ve done the exact same thing, celebrating Easter in Manchester, in a way that reminds me of home, with my family’s traditions and here is how I get to celebrate this holiday away from home!
I can’t recreate everything from back home, but there are some things I can do, and they keep me connected to my home country and family traditions.
In Lithuania, Easter is quite a big deal. It starts 7 weeks beforehand during the Carnaval (Užgavėnės) – where 2 guys (“porky” and “hempen man”) fight to see if these weeks will bring spring or winter weather. Kids dress up in traditional characters and go around houses asking for pancakes and hot cocoa (and sweets obviously, a bit like Halloween).
On March 4th, fairs happen all over the country, where you buy a bunch of willow (“verba”) to “hit” your family members a week before Easter on Palm Sunday for good health.
And now onto the actual Easter Sunday! A day before Easter, we dye eggs to make them as colourful as possible! Traditionally, eggs are painted using natural ingredients, from red cabbage and turmeric to oaks and onion peels. Or wax to create beautiful patterns.
One of the other common ways of dying eggs is using onion peels in a sock – as weird as it sounds, it works and creates extremely beautiful patterns. My family used to sit together and try as many different ways as possible to paint eggs and this activity just reminds me of home a lot.This is something I can do whilst away from home and last year my friend came to visit me, and here’s the eggs we decorated!
When I was little, we used to put some eggs down a huge slide and see who wins the most! My town one year even made the biggest slide in the country (18.6 m long!!!), and I remember how fun it was (and I won so many chocolate eggs doing that).
In the evening, I wrap up the day by making a huge roast and inviting some of my friends over. But let’s not forget a Lithuanian twist on it – different salads and herring (which sounds weird but it is always really good and homely).
