Paska (bread)

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Martiniouk Paska.JPG
Traditional Ukrainian Paska with a Trypillian pysanka and willow
Type Sweet bread
Place of origin Ukraine, south Russia
Main ingredients Milk, butter, eggs, sugar
Cookbook:Paska  Paska

Paska (Ukrainian: Cyrillic Паска, meaning Easter, from Hebrew pésakh passover) is an Easter bread eaten in the Assyrian world, Eastern European countries including Ukraine, south Russia, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Georgia and parts of Bulgaria. It is also eaten in countries with immigrant populations from Eastern Europe, such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Traditional ingredients[edit]

Paska is made with milk, butter, eggs, flour, and sugar, except in Romania, where the recipe most commonly includes sweet cream, cottage cheese, and/or sour cream along with eggs, sugar, raisins, and rum. An egg and water mixture is used as a glaze.

Christian symbolism[edit]


The Christian faithful in many Eastern Christian countries eat this bread during Easter. Christian symbolism is associated with features of paska type breads. The inside of paska can be a swirl of yellow and white that is said to represent the risen Christ, while the white represents the Holy Spirit. Other versions include chocolate, rice, or even savoury mixtures based on cheese. A version is made with maraschino cherries added to symbolize royal jewels in honor of the resurrection of Jesus.[1]

Assyrian Paska[edit]

In Iran and the diaspora, Assyrians will eat a Paska cake on Easter, Eeda Gura. The tall cake is decorated with a cross on top to represent Calvary, the place of Jesus' crucifixion, and surrounded with colored eggs to symbolize the people who visited Jesus during his death and were at his cross.

Eaten with other foods[edit]


Paska is eaten with "hrudka", also called syrek, a bland sweet custard similar to cheese made from separated eggs and milk and beets mixed with horseradish (chren/hrin) and kielbasa (in Polish) or kovbasa (in Ukrainian).

See also[edit]