Ukrainian Easter Dinner

What makes Easter central in Ukrainian homes

Easter, called Velykden (often translated as “the Great Day”), is the most important holiday in the Ukrainian church year. Whether a family is Ukrainian Greek Catholic or Orthodox, Easter food is a way of marking the end of a long fast and sharing the joy of the resurrection with relatives and neighbors.

The Easter meal is therefore a feast in the literal sense: rich foods that were avoided during Lent return to the table together, and many of them have been blessed beforehand. As with all holiday traditions, details differ between regions, parishes and families, so treat this as a guide to common practice rather than a rulebook.

From Lent to the Easter table

In the Eastern Christian traditions, Great Lent has traditionally been a strict fast. Observant families avoid meat, and often dairy and eggs, for much of the period, and eat simple dishes based on vegetables, grains, mushrooms and beans. Customs vary, and many people today follow a modified version.

That context explains the Easter menu. Eggs, butter, cheese, sausage and ham are the foods of celebration precisely because they were given up for weeks. If you want to see what sits on the other side of that fast, our collection of recipes for the Lenten season covers meatless dishes from several traditions.

The blessed basket

A basket of Easter food is typically brought to church to be blessed, most often on Holy Saturday or after the Easter liturgy, depending on local custom. The foods are then eaten at the first Easter meal. A Ukrainian basket often includes:

Paska, the tall, rich Easter bread, often decorated with braids or a cross, which symbolizes Christ as the bread of life
Eggs, either dyed one color (krashanky) or decorated with wax-resist patterns (pysanky)
Butter, sometimes shaped into a lamb or marked with a cross
Cheese, often a fresh farmer’s or cottage cheese
Salt
Horseradish, often grated and mixed with beets
Ham and kovbasa (sausage)
A candle and a cloth cover, in many homes

The meanings attached to each item are traditional explanations that families pass down, and you will hear different versions. For example, eggs are commonly connected with new life and the resurrection, and ham and sausage with abundance and joy. For more on the practice of blessing food, see our article on the blessing of Easter food.

Paska and sweet breads

Paska is the centerpiece of the table. It is an enriched yeast bread made with eggs, butter and milk, often baked in a tall round tin so that it rises into a dome. Some households make a cheese version (syrna paska), a sweet cheese-based dessert that shares the name. A second sweet bread, babka, is also common, and many families bake both. Bread is regarded with particular respect in Ukrainian tradition.

Eggs: pysanky and krashanky

Eggs appear everywhere. Decorated pysanky are usually treated as works of art rather than food: they are drawn with melted wax and layered dyes. Plain dyed krashanky and other hard-boiled eggs are the ones eaten, and egg-based dishes such as deviled eggs are common. A shared egg is a common way to begin the meal.

Meats and sausage

Ham, glazed or simply baked
Kovbasa, Ukrainian sausage, usually garlicky and smoked
Roast pork (buzhenyna is a typical term for baked, seasoned pork), sometimes served cold

Cheese, butter, horseradish and beets

Fresh cheese and butter sit beside the meats. Horseradish with beets (tsvikli) is a sharp, sweet-earthy relish that cuts through the fat of ham and sausage, and appears on many Eastern European Easter tables.

Holubtsi, pierogi and borscht

Holubtsi are cabbage rolls, usually filled with rice and meat or sometimes mushrooms, and baked or simmered in a tomato or mushroom sauce. Romania’s version, sarmale, is described in our guide to food in Transylvania.
Pierogi (also called varenyky) are filled dumplings. Common fillings are potato, farmer’s cheese, cabbage or meat.
Buckwheat (hrechka) is the grain that sits beside many of these dishes at everyday meals; see our Ukrainian buckwheat recipes.
Borscht is the best-known Ukrainian soup, with beets as its signature ingredient. Versions with and without meat exist, and a meat version is more typical of a feast day.

These are among the dishes most associated with Ukrainian cooking in general, so a list of the “top five” would usually draw from borscht, varenyky, holubtsi, kovbasa and a dessert or bread such as syrnyky or paska. Opinions differ, and no single list is official.

Desserts

Besides paska and babka, you may find poppy seed cake, walnut torte, cheesecake (syrnyk), honey cake (medovyk) and fried dough such as pampushky.

Easter traditions around the table

Greeting: Many Ukrainian families greet one another with “Christ is risen!” and the reply “Truly He is risen!” (in Ukrainian, Khrystos voskres! / Voistynu voskres!).
Sharing the blessed food: The family shares food from the basket first, often eating a portion of every item.
Eggs: Tapping decorated eggs against each other is a popular game, and gifts of pysanky are traditional.
Candles and flowers: Many homes decorate the table with candles, greenery and spring flowers.

Planning ahead

A realistic plan for a home cook:

Weeks before: if you decorate pysanky, start early, since each egg takes time.
Several days ahead: bake paska and babka, make the horseradish and beets, and prepare cabbage rolls (they reheat well).
Day before: make pierogi, boil eggs, and assemble the basket.
Easter morning: warm the soup and rolls, slice the ham and kovbasa, and set out the bread, eggs and cheese.

Keep eggs, cheese and cooked meats refrigerated until close to serving time.

Frequently asked questions

What is a traditional Ukrainian dinner?

A traditional Ukrainian dinner often has a soup such as borscht, a main dish of meat, dumplings or cabbage rolls with potatoes or buckwheat, and a salad or pickled vegetables. A holiday dinner adds more dishes and special breads.

Across cultures it varies. On a Ukrainian table, expect paska, eggs, ham, kovbasa, horseradish with beets, cheese and butter, cabbage rolls, pierogi, borscht and a few desserts.

How does it compare to a Polish Easter?

There is substantial overlap in sausage, ham, eggs, horseradish and sweet breads, and both traditions bless food in a basket. See our traditional Polish Easter dinner menu for the differences, such as the importance of zurek and the swieconka.