Natalia Tatarinova, the Russian Ambassador’s wife shares some Russian Easter traditions
EASTER is round the corner and as we ready ourselves for a break this coming long weekend, Mrs Natalia Tatarinova, wife of Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Singapore, HE Andrey Tatarinov will have a few more additions to her Easter eggs and postcards collection. She shared how, “In Russia we don’t only hard boil eggs and decorate them in order to exchange with each other on Easter day but we also buy a new decorative egg every year. Most of them are wooden and then hand painted. Some artists take a wooden egg and then weave it over with multi-coloured beads. There are porcelain eggs too!” She also shares some photos of her collection here. Singaporeans were able to get some insights on Easter egg collections last year when there was a Belgium exhibition of Faberge and international eggs at Singapore’s Philatelic Museum.
The Ambassadior’s wife also imparted another tradition related to Easter in Russia: “As for Russian Easter tea, we bake a very rich cake once a year only. The process takes 4 to 5 hours. There are simpler cakes and cookies that can be done quickly. For example, on special occasions we make blini (pancakes) and spread them with jam, whipped cream, boiled condensed milk etc to make a tower. They are very tasty and looks beautiful! One of the photos here shows the Easter cake. We put icing on top and serve with special spread. Two letters written on the cake and postcards – XB – means “Christ resurrected” in Russian. On Easter morning we greet each other with these words. The response from the other person is “Resurrected indeed”. Then we kiss each other three times and exchange eggs.”
