LVIV, Ukraine – On the eve of the most important Christian religious festival of the year, Ukrainians clung to centuries-old Easter traditions in the shadow of a war that has brought destruction and pain for most of the country.
At the Greek Catholic Church of the Transfiguration in the historic city center of Lviv, a line of worshipers stood next to the wicker baskets they carried, covered with embroidered cloth and filled with sausages and hams. smoke, Easter bread, butter and cheese to be blessed by the priest.
It is a ceremony that is celebrated throughout Ukraine, in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Catholic churches, according to the Julian calendar, and will celebrate Easter this year on Sunday.
Food is intended for the elaborate Easter breakfast after Mass on Sunday.
Other residents carry Easter baskets through the cobblestone streets on their way to the church of all denominations that line the central market, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As air raid sirens blared, cafes closed and a group of street musicians halted the folk music they were playing on traditional Ukrainian stringed instruments.
At a nearby intersection, some residents placed bouquets of flowers at the foot of the statue of the Virgin Mary, next to piles of white sandbags to protect the statue from bombings. Since the beginning of the war, churches have wrapped religious statues in protective wrapping and have stained glass windows.
Russia, also predominantly Eastern Orthodox, rejected calls by Ukraine and the United Nations this week for a ceasefire over Easter.
Although the majority of Ukrainians and Russians are Orthodox Christians, lingering simmering tensions between church leaders in the two countries have deepened in recent years. In 2019, the church in Ukraine, which has been under Moscow since 1686, was granted independence.
This week, Russian air strikes have killed at least seven people in Lviv, but the city has avoided most of the fighting that has raged in the east of the country over the past two months. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have sought refuge here or have crossed on their way to Poland and other countries.
At Lviv’s central train station, volunteers distributed Easter chocolates to displaced children from other cities. A family that received the gift walked for five days with their four children from the devastated southern port of Mariupol on their way to relative safety in western Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians say they are still sticking to their traditions in the face of the mounting sadness and fear that war brings.
Myroslava Zakharkiv, a university English lecturer, said: “This year there was not much happiness in people’s faces and eyes. “Many people are grieving, many men have died in front of them.”
Ms. Zakharkiv, 48, said she did a traditional Easter cleaning in a village near Lviv. She also baked Easter bread and prepared food to put in baskets to be blessed at church.
“We were hoping there would be no bombs and no alarm bells but nobody knew what was going to happen so we were a bit scared,” she said.
For many displaced people, war also means the separation of their families.
Anna Mukoida, 22, said it was her first Easter away from her family, staying in Bila Tserkva, a town 50 miles south of Kyiv, while she fled to the western city of Chernivtsi. male.
Despite the danger and uncertainty, many Ukrainians are determined to uphold their traditions.
“Easter in times of war is like the sun on a rainy day,” said Ms. Mukoida. “It is very important now to have such days just to feel alive and remember that there was life before the war.”
Neonila Vodolska, 22, has also been moved. She is staying in the western city of Kalush, far from her family in Kyiv. To ease the pain of family separation, she said she bought a traditional dark red embroidered white shirt to wear during Easter.
“Now I fully understand the importance of preserving such traditions,” Ms. Vodolska said. “Doing something ordinary, celebrating something that reminds me of the good times, of my childhood, gives me hope.”
In most parts of the country, a curfew is still in place on Saturday night, when many Christians traditionally hold mass and celebrate Mass at midnight to remember those who have waited on Sunday. Good Saturday by the Tomb of Christ. Instead, many planned to watch the Mass on television.
“We must understand that gathering civilians at a predetermined time for all-night service can become targets for missiles, aircraft and Artillery”.
In Lviv, authorities initially announced the curfew would be lifted but then reimposed it after receiving intelligence that pro-Russian vandals might be planning an attack on the city.
Earlier this week, the head of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, asked clerics to abandon Easter services at night in areas of the country affected by the fighting, because fear of Russian bombardment.
“It’s not hard to believe that this will actually happen, because the enemy is trying to completely destroy us,” he said in a televised address.
