Paska

The story

In eastern Slovakia, the Easter basket is built around one loaf. Paska is a round, lightly sweet white bread, and Marek Kreheľ, the parish dean in Bardejov, recalls that people in the Šariš region spoke of "švecene pasky," blessed paskas, as the heart of the basket. Ethnologist Katarína Popelková of the Slovak Academy of Sciences places paska east of Spišská Nová Ves. A radio feature on baking it ties paska above all to the northeast, home of the Rusyn minority, on the line between Eastern and Western Christian traditions, and notes that the same name is used in Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria and Greece. Paska is baked once a year, for Easter, and is eaten in place of everyday bread with ham, sausages and eggs. The radio feature describes the loaf as round, almost ball-shaped. Ethnologist Katarína Babčáková told the SITA agency that in Spiš and the east, families took baskets with a round paska, klobása, hrudka, salt and eggs to be blessed after an early Easter service, then ate together, shared a blessed egg and did not leave the table during the meal. For a blessing on Saturday evening, March 27, 2027, or on Easter morning, bake the loaf on Good Friday.