Saturday, April 11, 2009

Pascha Baskets

What goes into a Pascha basket? Nichola T. Kraus has written an informative article about what goes in their baskets, and what each thing symbolizes.

This explanation from "Children of the Church" posted by St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Texas reminds us that, "...each of the foods in the Pascha basket have rich meaning, as does everything in Orthodoxy. Glory to God!"

If you would like to print something with pictures to use in teaching your children, you might like this version of "Preparing a Pascha Basket." or this one that the kids might color.

A new tip: put the salt in a little container in which you will place a candle. The salt acts like sand in holding it in place. Being practical, and knowing I wasn't going to be sprinkling my salt on anything, I haven't included it in the past, but with a job to do, salt will probably make it into the basket this year.

I still remember the year we went to Burger King on the way to Church Saturday night. Two bacon-double cheese burgers nested in our basket until 2:30 am. They did not taste wonderful and we've never attempted that again!

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With gratitude, I share our Pascha Basket Cover.

Four years ago our sponsors commissioned a dear sister at Holy Apostles to make this basket cover for us as a Pascha gift.


The oil is represents the Holy Spirit and reminds us of our Chrismation.



The grapes on the cross and the wheat to the right are for the Body and Blood of Christ, as shown in the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist.


Every Pashca (Easter) we fill our basket with wonderful things, cover it with our beautiful cover, and bring it to church.

We hang it up near our Prayer Corner for the weeks after Pascha.

Christ is Risen, and he has bestowed on us

the gift of

LIFE!

1 comment:

  1. Blessed Palm Sunday!

    Thank you for the helpful links. We put together our first Pascha basket last year, but I would like to improve upon it this year :) Thanks!

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