Traditional Easter Foods From Around The World

When we think of Easter it seems the first food that comes to mind are the brightly colored hard boiled eggs. Each year in my home I would cook them up and engage the kids in the decorating. At first I used the box varieties to color the eggs until I discovered a better method in my eyes. Food Coloring packages found in your baking section with boiling water and white vinegar is the ticket! The nice thing is the food coloring offers ways to make many different colors and the kids have a blast creating them and their own mixtures.

While doing some research I found out that Hot Cross Buns are a favorite around the globe. Originally these small "cakes" were from the Anglo-Saxons who were honoring the springtime goddess Eostre. Conversion to Christianity the church then substituted sweetbreads that were blessed by the church. The buns are decorated with a cross on the top.

The Slavic countries in Central and Eastern Europe include Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, Russia, Serbia and Slovakia, Slovenia and the Ukraine to name a few. In each of these countries they serve a sweet cake or bread such as the Czechoslovakia babobka and the Polish (my heritage) baba or sometimes called babka.

A roast lamb dinner is on many an Easter table or restaurant buffet table. This tradition dates back to the first passover of the Jewish People. It is said the sacrificial lamb was roasted and consumed in the hope that the angel of God would pass over their homes and bring no harm to them. In the United States ham has become a traditional Easter food and is what we will be having on Easter Sunday.
Of course, food not withstanding this is a religious holiday for many throughout the world. It is the day that Christians celebrate "the Risen Christ" who then had a seat on the right side of God. The photograph below is a picture of a picture. It is a stained glass window I created with a friend many years ago for a church located in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

We then created this next window together for the front of the church.

They often refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God - for the sacrifice he made on what is now called, Good Friday.

Back to food. At Easter your local grocery store will put up some nice ham specials for Easter Dinner. We like to bake ours with a basting sauce. It is a very simple and inexpensive sauce you can make in advance. I recommend you baste the ham at the beginning and throughout the baking process.
You can find the Baked Ham Glaze on this site.