It starts on the Saturday- the Saturday before Easter. Holy Saturday? Before we have a week of lent, and then on Saturday there's a big ceremony by the Bishop and a blessing of fire and water and then it's the Resurrection and Mass. And on Saturday, the food is blessed by the Priest.
The Blessing of the Food
No English (British) Catholics do this. First of all, eggs. You share small pieces of egg (pisanka) with everybody. Eggs symbolise new life and that Christ has risen. Then we have a special table with different foods. Like ham, sausages (kielbasa), specially baked cheesecake and Babka- Easter cake. Babka...must be yeast. And beetroot soup, or mushroom soup. The egg is hard boiled and cut in pieces. Usually the Priest, or whoever is in charge, comes to everybody, with wishes, and we share it with everybody. The same as at Christmas with wafers. So it's similar to communion.
Are the eggs decorated?
Yes! It's a big tradition in Poland. We have such a variety of different patterns. Some patterns represent different regions in the country. There are different ways of producing it. You have paper you can stick to it, or you paint it in a strong colour and then put wax on it, then take the melted wax away and you have a pattern. Beautiful. Some stick materials or ornaments from cut pieces of material. The most important, in the middle of the table, is lamb (Paschal lamb). It personifies Christ. The lamb (in this case) is either baked from cake or pastry or even butter. You put butter into the form of a lamb, and that's it. Sometimes even sugar! That all goes out on the Saturday.
Is this bigger for Polish people than Christmas?
Maybe more important, more Catholic. Because Christmas is more...popular (more commercialised).
What about the ceremonies here (at the Penley hospital) over the years?
1947 was our first Easter. We did what we could, you know. I think we had the Bishop.
A Wrexham Bishop?
Yes, yes, and they attended every year.
How many people would have been present in those days?
A lot. Altogether, over a thousand, with staff and families. At the beginning, we didn't have supplies as we have now, but eggs were always there, and ham and sausage. And we always had Babka, the Easter cake. We had our resident Priest, so he celebrated our traditions, and a Polish cook, and he carried on the traditional cooking. It was a lot for so many people. The kitchen was a big, important place.
