Bulgarian Easter traditions Easter is a Christian holiday

ВЕЛИКДЕН Bulgarian Easter traditions

• Easter is a Christian holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead three days after his crucifixion on Good Friday and marking the end of the Lent. A symbol of the Resurrection is the egg out of which a bird hatches. Easter is the time of springtime festivals, a time to welcome back the tulips, the crocuses and the daffodils. It is also the holiest day in the Christian calendar, followed by Christmas and is recognized as a legal holiday in most countries with a significant Christian tradition. The Bulgarian Easter traditions are a variation of traditional Orthodox Easter traditions.

The bright red colored egg is the symbol of Easter (or Pascha) for the Orthodox Christians all over the world.

The traditional Orthodox Paschal greeting is: "Christ is Risen!“ The answer is: "Indeed He is Risen". This is the greeting during 40 days after Pascha. Also, the greeting is exchanged during the ritual tapping of the eggs.

The first egg to be made is always painted red to symbolize the blood of Christ and put aside - either to be buried in the fields to ensure fertility or kept in the home to bring good luck. The ritual of tapping the eggs takes place just before the Easter lunch begins.

Each person will select his or her egg. Then the people in turn exchange the Easter greeting ("Christ is Risen!"/ "Indeed He is Risen") 3 times before tapping their egg against the eggs of others. The person who ends up with the last unbroken egg is believed to have a year of good luck.