The blessing of the baskets

[kathy_may]

I would like to introduce this beautiful blessing with my church could you give me some hints since it would be new . I attend Sacred Heart in cullman alabama and it is difficult enough to be catholic in the south! but this is something I believe people would enjoy especially with every thing going on in the world I dont believe we can get enough blessing

 

[Snerticus]

I think this belongs in the Traditional Catholicism forum, not Eastern Catholicism., but hey, I could be wrong.

That said, I grew up in Sacred Heart parish in PA and we had blessing of the baskets for as long as I can remember and even before then. I think it’s a Polish tradition but it could have other ethnicities attached to it. I know my parish back in PA had a strong Polish background and still does. And of course, I’m Polish.

God Bless,
Snert

 

[Cluny]

** I think it’s a Polish tradition but it could have other ethnicities attached to it.**

Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics do it, too.

The basket is supposed to have foods you abstained from during Lent.

If you didn’t abstain from anything, don’t have it blessed.

 

[Patchunky]

** I think it’s a Polish tradition but it could have other ethnicities attached to it.**

Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics do it, too.

The basket is supposed to have foods you abstained from during Lent.

If you didn’t abstain from anything, don’t have it blessed.

Actually, this custom is from the Slavic peoples of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.

The basket contains many symbolic foods, some of them were abstained from during Lent and some were not. Different regions put different things into the basket depending on what kind of region it was; i.e. some areas of Western Slovakia put a veal loaf in the basket but those in Eastern Slovakia did not. Some regions put in a bottle of wine and other areas did not.

This site: r-fol.com/st.athanasius/EasterBasket.htm will give you an idea of what goes into a traditional Easter basket, although, over the years, I’ve seen a little bit of everything from pans of lasagna to loaves of bread still in the wrapper and kolbassy still in the package from the grocery store…

Hope this helps…