Before feast is put on the table, it's brought to church for blessing

The tradition is rooted in Eastern European religious practices.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CAMPBELL -- Geraldine Dubos loaded her family's Easter dinner into a wicker basket, making sure to include each of the items of a traditional holiday feast, and brought them to be blessed.
Dubos, of Coitsville, was one of about 75 people who gathered Saturday morning at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church for the traditional blessing of the Easter foods.
She lifted a cloth from her basket to reveal the pascha, or Easter bread, along with ham, sausage, colored eggs, salt, butter and horseradish -- the makings of her family's Easter feast. She attends the blessing every Easter.
Some people leave the service and eat their blessed foods for the midday meal, Dubos said.
"I'll wait till after the Mass tonight," she said.
As soon as the food has been blessed, you can eat it, Dubos added; "Whatever's left, you have to burn it."
And what about the leftovers?
"No, no leftovers, not with my family," she said, laughing.
The Rev. Michael Swierz of St. Elizabeth, who conducted the service, said the food blessing is popular with Eastern European Catholics, including Slovaks, Ukrainians and the Polish. But it has spread to those of other nationalities, too.
"It just grows up in a parish," he said.
Father Swierz said the Saturday evening Mass is conducted in the dark with a large bonfire.
Foods blessed are traditionally those given up for Lent, so they're blessed before being eaten, Father Swierz added.
According to the service's program, certain items make a traditional Easter basket complete. It should be wicker with a ribbon or bow tied to the handle and a decorated candle to be lighted at the time of blessing it placed inside.
A cover, sometimes with an embroidered picture of Christ, covers the food.
Symbolic foods
The Easter bread symbolizes Christ, "who is our true bread," the program says. Ham is often the main dish with Slavs and symbolizes the holiday's joy and abundance. Sausage represents God's favor and generosity.
Hard-boiled, decorated eggs indicate new life and resurrection; horseradish mixes with red beets to illustrate the Passion of Christ, with added sugar embodying the resurrection.
Butter, bacon, cheese and salt, all signifying different traits of Christianity, round out a basket's contents.
According to information in the blessing's program, the coloring of eggs traces to a legend that Mary tried to give Pontius Pilate a gift so the ruler would spare her son. Because she was poor, she had only eggs to give, and Pilate refused them.
Mary cried when she realized that Jesus would be crucified, her tears falling onto the eggs and dying them many colors, the legend says.