Basket full of blessings: Local churches continue Easter basket blessing tradition
On Saturday afternoon, dozens of parishioners holding elaborate baskets filled with sweet and savory goodies gathered inside St. Francis of Assisi Church in Finleyville for the traditional Easter basket blessing service.
“The blessing of Easter baskets goes back to at least the Middle Ages,” said the Rev. Robert “Father Bob” Miller, who serves at St. John the XXIII Parish, which includes St. Francis, St. Isaac Jogues Church in Jefferson Hills and St. Benedict the Abbot Church in McMurray. “Immigrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, brought that tradition to this country.”
The tradition is rich in culture and symbolism.
Christians, especially Catholics, begin a 40-day period of fasting on Ash Wednesday, which culminates in joyful celebration on Easter Sunday. During the Lenten season many restrict or abstain from meat, oils and other foods, like chocolate or butter.
“What is in the basket and what is being blessed is supper, to be the first meal of Easter. From Good Friday until after the Easter vigil, Catholics are supposed to be fasting,” said the Rev. Anthony Klimko, pastor at Roman Catholic Churches of Southern Fayette. “We’re breaking that fast and partaking in all of these wonderful foods.”
All the wonderful foods include Easter basket staples like butter, often shaped like a lamb, to symbolize the richness of salvation, and ham or other meats to represent the joy of Christ’s resurrection. Sausage links represent the chains of death broken by Jesus’s sacrifice and resurrection, colored eggs are reminders of hope and new life and candles, which are commonly included in the baskets, remind those present that Christ is the light of the world.
Wine is often included in baskets, and horseradish is symbolic of the bitterness of the Passion of Christ (“Who knew horseradish had its own blessing?” Miller laughed).
“You can’t forget the Easter bread,” Klimko said. “The paska, like a sweetened yeast bread. It’s so delicious.”
Paska, or pascha, depending on one’s ethnic spelling, bread is a work of art and labor of love; some women simply top the bread with a cross, while others braid their loaves or fashion them into circles decorated with a crown of thorns. That bread is often paired with Easter cheese, which symbolizes moderation, handmade from recipes passed down through generations.
“My daughter and I bake the bread, we use a recipe that was passed down to us,” said Veronica Kochinski, who lives in McMurray and belongs to St. John the XXIII parish. “We bake our own bread, we make our own cheese. We grind our own horseradish. I bake kolachky, which are the Eastern European cookies that have the filling. It’s a lot of work, making the bread and all the other things. It’s a labor of love.”
Kochinski has been preparing Easter baskets for blessing since she was a little girl in Windber, where she and her parents attended St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church.
“My grandparents and my parents did it, and then when I got married, I did it,” she said. “My daughter does it and her children each do it. Even as children, they made their own basket and took it to church and got it blessed. We look forward to that every year.”
Basket preparation is a time of reflection for Kochinski and many other faithful.
“You think about why Christ died, and his resurrection, and what it means,” she said. “You think about the people who can’t enjoy doing that, especially in Eastern European countries. We’re very happy to do it and to share it with family and friends. It’s just a wonderful, symbolic way to celebrate Easter.”
Every year, save the COVID years, Kochinski and her husband pack their baskets and travel to Windber, to celebrate Easter with relatives, beginning with the Easter basket blessing.
“It’s a beautiful ceremony, not very long,” she said. “We would go to my cousin’s house, then we partake in the food. We really look forward to that.”
Basket blessings were also held at churches throughout Washington and Greene counties.
Parishioners from St. Matthias Parish in Greene County celebrated basket blessings Saturday at both St. Ann in Waynesburg and St. Ignatius in Bobtown. Margaret McCombs, of Carmichaels, is among those who participated in the St. Ann’s basket blessing.
“It just wouldn’t feel right, like Easter, if we didn’t do it,” said McCombs, whose earliest Easter memories include putting together a basket with her mother. “We’ve always taken this basket to church on the Saturday before Easter. We would come home and we would eat our blessed food. It’s just a family tradition.”
McCombs’ family fills baskets with all the traditional things, including home-baked paska bread and Easter cheese, plus pierogies, which were until this year homemade.
“I remember as a little girl, running into the house, I couldn’t wait for that bread to be made,” McCombs laughed. “My mother would have it (cheese) hanging from the handles in the kitchen. We always made pierogies. Everybody makes their basket differently. When you go to the church, the front of the church along the altar, everybody lines their baskets up. It’s just a Catholic tradition.”