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April 21, on Maundy Thursday, one of Lviv’s bakeries, «Krymska Perepichka» («Crimean bakery»), started preparing Easter cakes for the military. About 500 cakes have already been sent to the front, the rest will be sent in the coming days. This is done as part of the «Easter for the Hero» campaign.
According to the bakery owner, Oksana Novikova, Easter cakes for the Ukrainian military are prepared by members of the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity together with the Museum of Dignity in Lviv, the volunteer headquarters of the university activists from Student Brotherhood of Lviv, and volunteers working together to accelerate victory.
Read also: The exhibition of pre-Christian Easter eggs is functioning in Lviv. Photo tour by Lviv Now
Singer and public figure Solomiya Chubai and members of the band «Korali» also joined the event.
According to Lyudmyla Zborovska, a folklorist, and member of the «Korali» band, there are many recipes for Easter cakes, but all of them are united by one thing, cooking and baking require that the house be clean and tidy and that there be peace and quiet in the soul.
In order for the Easter cake to be beautiful and not «humpbacked», you can’t quarrel with anyone or argue in the house. There must be silence at home. There must also be peace in the soul. Due to the events in Kyiv, Mariupol, and other cities where hostilities are taking place, it is difficult not to worry, so we must pray more and ask for peace. By the way, earlier, when kneading Easter cakes, the hostess said Our Father prayer 12 times, – says conductor Nadiya Kondratenko.
According to Lyudmyla Zborovska, Easter cake used to be not sweet, only over the years, raisins, lemon peel, and sometimes ginger, yellow for beauty and white for the spirit, were added to it. By the way, before adding raisins, it is recommended to wash them first, dry them a bit and roll them in flour. Then, they will be well and evenly distributed in the dough. At the end of kneading, you can add a little oil and vodka to keep the cake from hardening. Ready dough for baking when it lags behind the hands.
Singer and public figure Solomiya Chubai, who has been baking Easter cakes for 15 years, says that while baking Easter cakes, she and her grandmother also loved to sing «haivky» [folk spring songs in Ukraine] or just «Christ is Risen».
Solomiya Chubai recalls how she failed to make Easter cake eight years ago. Then the grandmother was surprised and assumed that there would be a war. The same thing happened this year. While preparing the dough for bread, the dough did not grow again, and a few days later, a full-scale war broke out in Ukraine.
The family bakery «Krymska Perepichka», where Easter cakes are baked, was chosen for the event, not by chance. The migrants, who were once forced to leave the occupied Crimea, established a network of bakeries in Lviv. They have been actively supporting the Ukrainian army since 2014, volunteering and creating an active community around them. According to the owner, Oksana Novikova, there are already three «Krymska Perepichka» in Lviv, and she plans to open the next bakery in Crimea.
Anyone can join in baking and transferring cakes for the military to the front line by coming to the «Krymska Perepichka» bakery. You can buy Easter cakes or donate money.
The National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity launched the Easter for Heroes campaign in 2017. Every year, the families of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, relatives of the heroes of the Russian-Ukrainian war, military, volunteers, public and cultural figures, museum workers and artists baked Easter cakes and painted Easter eggs, told about their local and family traditions. In addition to Kyiv, the actions were successful in other regions of Ukraine.
By Olha Shveda, translated by Kateryna Bortniak
Photo: Lviv Now / Ivan Stanislavskyi
Video: Daria Kucher
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.
