Paskha (Easter) Traditions and other things

Sunday is Paskha, Orthodox Easter. There are certain traditions that go with it. Like Family Gatherings which will not be the case this year, but other traditions still carry on.

Thursday is cleaning day. Clean house, clean body, clean heart. Since we could not hire our usual cleaning lady, I did the vacuuming and some dusting. Tanya damp mopped and more dusting.

Friday is baking day. Tanya swore she would not paint eggs this year nor make Paskha bread. She did both. Fifteen eggs (?) and 3 large, 4 small Easter bread. We also made 4 loaves of banana bread and two pans of Mexican corn bread. She sent baskets of stuff to Andrey's family and to Lina.

Today Tanya is back gardening, mostly watering as we are so dry. The winds which stop only at night suck the moisture out of the soil and fill the air with dust. Strong winds also reignited the fires in the Chernobyl area two days ago and they are burning out of control again. The pollution in Kyiv makes it impossible to go outdoors or open windows.

The fires were deliberately started, possibly with malicious intent. That aspect is being investigated by the FSU (Ukraine's CIA). There are other malicious activities ongoing as well.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate (UOCMP) has been an unofficial arm of the Kremlin's war on Ukraine. The Pecherska Lavra, a UNESCO site, is controlled by the UOCMP. It is a hot spot of coronavirus, with many monks and staff testing positive and two deaths reported. While the Autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has been fully cooperative with the Ukrainian government's stay at home orders, the UOCMP has not. Even though in Russia the ROC is encouraging people not to attend services, in Ukraine the UOCMP is deliberately undermining the government's attempts to halt the spread. There was a large gathering at the Pecherska Lavra last Sunday and another is expected this Sunday. This is simply to impede the control of the virus in Ukraine and inflict disease and death.

We will have a feast tomorrow, even if there is only the two of us. Tanya has the menu planned. I am going to attempt scalloped potatoes with ham, just to add a bit of Canadian to it.

Zhovti Vody is shut down from noon today, no stores, no taxis, nothing. People are being urged not to attend Easter services, to avoid congregating anywhere. Next week end is Memorial weekend when people traditionally visit the graves of loved ones, some even traveling long distances. One hopes that the visits will not all occur on Sunday but be spread out over several days.

Now I need to walk the dogs. My excuse to leave the yard and wander the back roads. A 75 lb German Shepherd pup on a 10' leash is a useful distancing tool incase I meet pedestrians.