Does your parish bless food baskets on Holy Saturday? Do you purchase an Easter butter lamb?

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thereseozi

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Does your parish bless food baskets on Holy Saturday? Here is a story: post-gazette.com/pg/08083/867336-51.stm?cmpid=localstate.xml

Do you purchase an Easter butter lamb (symbolizing Christ) for your Easter meal? Here is a picture: andreasrecipes.com/2008/03/04/butter-lamb-for-easter/

My sister moved from Michigan to Florida and she could not find an Easter butter lamb anywhere. I’m glad there are still many Polish traditions in Southeast Michigan like Easter butter lambs and the blessing of food baskets on Holy Saturday.

~Therese
 
Ha! I’m Roman Catholic but my Babka was Russian Orthodox. Last year I did “the spread” for my long-lost family (yep, kielbasa, latkes, oplatki, fresh grated horseradish…name it and it was on the table). I even made the butter lamb…

I either bought the mold from here:
polartcenter.com/URLrewrite.asp?404;http://polartcenter.com:80/Plastic_Butter_Lamb_Mold_p/9030093.htm&Redirected=Y
or from a seller on eBay who sells under the name “slavonic” – I’ve never had a problem with either site.

I put the basket together (blessed candle, salt, holy water, eggs, pascha bread and sirits spread, different kinds of pork…and bits of so much more!) and brought it to my RC Parish and asked Father to bless it before the Saturday vigil (I called ahead to be sure he’d have time). I even made a cover for it and included a kholoma spoon (it was going to be a gift to represent the need from want and always enough to share in the coming year).

Father wanted to know what each thing was for but after he saw how big it was, he just nodded and blessed the whole thing. 😊
 
Wow, ive never even heard of that lamb or blessing food…

This is a custom principally of the Slavic Byzantine Churches–Catholic and Orthodox.

The basket contains food you abstained from–or were supposed to abstain from–all during Lent.
 
thereseozi said:
Does your parish bless food baskets on Holy Saturday? Here is a story: post-gazette.com/pg/08083/867336-51.stm?cmpid=localstate.xml

Do you purchase an Easter butter lamb (symbolizing Christ) for your Easter meal? Here is a picture: andreasrecipes.com/2008/03/04/butter-lamb-for-easter/

My sister moved from Michigan to Florida and she could not find an Easter butter lamb anywhere. I’m glad there are still many Polish traditions in Southeast Michigan like Easter butter lambs and the blessing of food baskets on Holy Saturday.

~Therese
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Therese:
Butter lambs may be available from one of the byzantine parishes; there’s a Ruthenian parish in the greater orlando area, and there should be a ukrainian parish around somewhere down there. Or look in the roman parishes for a Polish-laguage mass.

My home parish does bless baskets… Sausage, Cheese, Butter, Salt, Pepper, Wine, Candles, Water, sweets, and eggs are typical in our parish.
 
I live in a Polish(Latin)/Ukrainian(GreekCatholic) split home so this certainly rings a bell but I’ve never really thought about it. My Babcia/Baba always does it for us, but I’ve never taken an active interest, perhaps I’ll go this year.

I’m usually face first in a bowl of bialy barszcz z kielbasa(n), so naturally I don’t take notice of such things :o

We don’t have a butter lamb, but we do have this creepy sugar lamb that’s definitley past it’s expiray date (definitley older then me, 21). Does anyone else have a sugar lamb?
 
thereseozi said:
Does your parish bless food baskets on Holy Saturday? Here is a story: post-gazette.com/pg/08083/867336-51.stm?cmpid=localstate.xml

Do you purchase an Easter butter lamb (symbolizing Christ) for your Easter meal? Here is a picture: andreasrecipes.com/2008/03/04/butter-lamb-for-easter/

My sister moved from Michigan to Florida and she could not find an Easter butter lamb anywhere. I’m glad there are still many Polish traditions in Southeast Michigan like Easter butter lambs and the blessing of food baskets on Holy Saturday.

~Therese
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I am from Pennsylvania and a parish that was from a predominantly Polish neighborhood. Of course I’m 100% of Polish descent. 😃 We always blessed the baskets on Hold Saturday stuffed chock full of kielbasa, pierogis, hard boiled eggs, and other yummy stuff. One side of my family got the buttler lamb and we also ate lamb on Easter. My mom’s side did not, but my grandmother’s homemade pierogis were the BEST!

When I moved down here to the parish I’m at now, I was surprised to see they bless baskets on Holy Saturday too! It’s not a Polish parish at all, but I’m glad they do it. 🙂
 
Freshman88 said:
I live in a Polish(Latin)/Ukrainian(GreekCatholic) split home so this certainly rings a bell but I’ve never really thought about it. My Babcia always does it for us, but I’ve never taken an active interest, perhaps I’ll go this year.

I’m usually face first in a bowl of bialy barszcz z kielbasa(n), so naturally I don’t take notice of such things :o

We don’t have a butter lamb, but we do have this creepy sugar lamb that’s definitley past it’s expiray date (definitley older then me, 21). Does anyone else have a sugar lamb?
Click to expand...
I used to have sugar easter eggs, the really big ones.
 
Snerticus said:
I used to have sugar easter eggs, the really big ones.
Click to expand...

Do you put them out on the table? or just eat them? Our sugar lamb has this weird tradition behind that I don’t understand - namely because that lamb has terrified me since my earliest days as a toddler.
Anyway, it sounds like our sugar lamb mirrors the butter lamb tradition.​

The only eggs we have are those Ukrainian eggs (we have boxes of these things) and the eggs in our white borsch.

edit: we also do this thing where we walk around with eggs (blessed?) and the heads of the families give small pieces to each person individually as they give them words of wisdom, advice, and congratulations. Much like the Oplatek tradition. Anyway, this has to be my favourtie tradition, it’s just so noble and intimate.
 
Freshman88 said:
Do you put them out on the table?
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LOL, well, my mom tried to, but I always had a “sweet tooth” and ate some of it.
The only eggs we have are those Ukrainian eggs (we have boxes of these things) and the eggs in our white borsch.
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Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I miss my grandmother’s white borsch!!! MMMMMM!!! I haven’t been able to find a suitable recipe since then. That was delicious! I never liked it until she passed away, then I wanted it all the time. (no, not because hers was horrible, but I think because it reminded me of her.) But we only had it on Easter.
we also do this thing where we walk around with eggs (blessed?) and the heads of the families give small pieces to each person individually as they give them words of wisdom, advice, and congratulations. Much like the Oplatek tradition. Anyway, this has to be my favourtie tradition, it’s just so noble and intimate.
Click to expand...
We never did that, but did do Oplatek at Christmas, starting with the oldest down to the youngest.
 
Snerticus said:
LOL, well, my mom tried to, but I always had a “sweet tooth” and ate some of it.
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lol.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I miss my grandmother’s white borsch!!! MMMMMM!!! I haven’t been able to find a suitable recipe since then. That was delicious! I never liked it until she passed away, then I wanted it all the time. (no, not because hers was horrible, but I think because it reminded me of her.) But we only had it on Easter.
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A good substitute are the Zurek packages found in Polish delis. Zurek I think is just another name for bialy barscz. It gets the job done, but sadly, nothing can replace a babcia 😦

[qutoe]
We never did that, but did do Oplatek at Christmas, starting with the oldest down to the youngest.
I think it is strange now that I think about it. But yes, it’s essentialy Oplatek but with hard boiled pieces of egg, from oldest to youngest.
 
Hey isn’t this jumping the gun just a little? We’re not even at Ash Wednesday yet. Goodness. But anyway, since it’s up on the board now, here’s a nice Swieconka basket link (Hubby’s mostly Polish),here . Enjoy.🙂

Edited to add: Snerticus, my husband’s father’s family is all Polish and from Pennsylvania, (Pottstown?) They were a coal mining family, with 10 kids.
 
Jacafamala said:
Hey isn’t this jumping the gun just a little? We’re not even at Ash Wednesday yet. Goodness. But anyway, since it’s up on the board now, here’s a nice Swieconka basket link (Hubby’s mostly Polish),here . Enjoy.🙂

Edited to add: Snerticus, my husband’s father’s family is all Polish and from Pensilvania, (Pottstown?)
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LOL, close enough! I’ve been there. 😃 About an hour south of us (our families live between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, PA). My dad is the youngest of 9!

My goodness! I forgot about the horseradish, but ours was not just pink, it was downright red from those beets! I remember liking it when I was a kid, but I don’t anymore. And the blessed salt, I remember that too!

All this is flooding my mind with wonderful memories… :love: … and hunger pangs!
 
Snerticus said:
I forgot about the horseradish, but ours was not just pink, it was downright red from those beets!
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Oh yeah, now you’re talking. Just sit me done infront of a plate of kielbasa and that stuff (whats it called?) with a shot or two of the good stuff, and i’ll be sleeping like a baby in no time.

Thanksgiving is nothing compared to these festivities 😃
 
Snerticus said:
LOL, close enough! I’ve been there. 😃 About an hour south of us (our families live between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, PA). My dad is the youngest of 9!

My goodness! I forgot about the horseradish, but ours was not just pink, it was downright red from those beets! I remember liking it when I was a kid, but I don’t anymore. And the blessed salt, I remember that too!

All this is flooding my mind with wonderful memories… :love: … and hunger pangs!
Click to expand...
Oh, I got it mixed up in my head…Actually, Pottstown is where a couple of the Aunties moved later on, but they were originally from Shamokin.

I’d like a proper container for blessed salt. Something with a lid…
 
Freshman88 said:
I live in a Polish(Latin)/Ukrainian(GreekCatholic) split home so this certainly rings a bell but I’ve never really thought about it. My Babcia/Baba always does it for us, but I’ve never taken an active interest, perhaps I’ll go this year.

I’m usually face first in a bowl of bialy barszcz z kielbasa(n), so naturally I don’t take notice of such things :o

We don’t have a butter lamb, but we do have this creepy sugar lamb that’s definitley past it’s expiray date (definitley older then me, 21). Does anyone else have a sugar lamb?
Click to expand...
No tradition of a butter lamb nor sugar lamb, but my mother has a mold to annually bake a lamb-shaped cake. Yum. 😛

tee
 
Aramis said:
Therese:
Butter lambs may be available from one of the byzantine parishes; there’s a Ruthenian parish in the greater orlando area, and there should be a ukrainian parish around somewhere down there. Or look in the roman parishes for a Polish-laguage mass.
Click to expand...
Hi! Great idea! I’ll be sure to let my sister know! Thanks! 🙂

Therese
 
Gosh, you guys are making me hungry! 🙂 I love reading about everyone’s traditions! Dziękuję
 
Jacafamala said:
Hey isn’t this jumping the gun just a little?
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Not really.

Great Fast starts next monday for Byzantine Catholics on the New Calendar (I’m not certain about those using the Old Calendar). Many parishes take orders for the butter lambs at the start of great fast, so that they can be picked up prior to Good Friday.
 
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