How to: Провідна Неділя (Providna Nedilya)

 

Providna Nedilya (loosely translated: Departing Week; pronunciation "proh-VEED-nah neh-DEEL-yah") is a holiday in the Ukrainian Orthodox calendar. It is held the weekend after Easter, with a all activities in or near the graveyard: planting, picnics, and parades, culminating with church services on St. Thomas Sunday. All weekend long, clergy also hold outdoor services at the gravesites, singing the Paschal Troparion (at the end of this page), as their black cassocks and long, gold-embroidered stoles flutter in the spring breezes. In a tradition that surely predates Christianity, people leave baskets or plates at their family's graves, with Easter foods, flowers, and decorated eggs, to share the spirit of the holiday with their departed loved ones. 

I love celebrating this holiday with family and friends. It's about honoring our ancestors (we tidy their gravesites and surround them with living plants, and then picnic together) and rejoicing in the renewed life of Springtime. With pagan roots and Christian tradition, this holiday brings loving care and good tidings to our dead, and gives those of us still living occasion to celebrate that fact.

This is how I celebrate Providna Nedilya here on the East Coast of the United States. First: plan ahead. I have a checkoff list (below) I share with two other families so we can potluck food and supplies. Second: leave for cemetery an hour before you think you need to. Trust me, you'll appreciate having the wiggle room. Third: set up tables, chairs, and food (there is always one person who is happy to just sit and guard the spread) so it's ready when we've finished tending the gravesites and have worked up an appetite. Extra credit: bring a Kelly kettle or some other means of boiling water outdoors, to make coffee and/or tea.

 

My late lunch menu has dishes ranging from Very Ukrainian to just Ukrainian-inflected. The central dishes are those that maximize ingredients forbidden (meat, eggs, dairy) and restricted (fish, alcohol) during the Great Lent. Are we strict about fasting? We'll keep that to ourselves. But no matter how you've conducted yourself, the taste of a fresh kolbasa eaten outside on a beautiful Spring day will inspire a religious level of gratitude.

PROVIDNA NEDILYA MENU (items marked with an asterisk* have recipes below)

Zakusky (appetizers)

Smoked fish (herring, salmon, and if you're splurging, sable) 

 

Fresh and/or pickled mixed vegetables (for pickled, ok to get the mixed mushrooms, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes in a jar available in Slavic food stores)

Fresh dill, chopped, to sprinkle on things

 

Cream cheese

Hard-boiled eggs or herbed deviled eggs such as these

Drink

Mineral water, Zoubrovka (get the real stuff, not the artificially-flavored neon green abomination), Kompot (homemade or bottled)

Soup

*French-Ukrainian Sorrel Soup

Julian Baczynsky (1923-2021),
at his East Village Meat Market

Mains

Variety of kolbasy (I like regular, double-smoked, and kabanosy --"hunter's sausage") and butcher-carved ham, with mustard, horseradish, and fresh rye bread.

 

 

 

Spring Salad with Sunflower Seeds (click for a recommended recipe)

Dessert

*Cheese Paska

Easter Babka

Poppy seed roll

Fresh fruit (I like blueberries and raspberries)

RECIPES

French-Ukrainian Sorrel Soup
Serves 8
 

Ingredients:

• White and pale green parts of four large leeks, washed well, drained, halved, and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
• 2 parsnips, peeled and sliced into 1/2" pieces
• 4 cups homemade chicken broth
• 1 cup shelled fresh or thawed frozen peas
• 2 cups lightly packed sorrel leaves, washed & spun dry
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

Cooking Instructions

1. In a large heavy pot such as a dutch oven, cook leeks in oil with salt and pepper to taste over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Meanwhile, prep potato and parsnip; add to broth and simmer, covered, about 10 minutes or until potato and parsnip are both tender. Stir in peas and simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes, or until peas are just cooked through; do not overcook, or peas will become mushy and lose flavor.
2. In a blender purée potato mixture with sorrel in batches until very smooth, transferring to a bowl. Whisk in sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill soup, covered, at least 2 hours, and up to 24.
3. Serve in bowls, and sprinkle lemon juice on top.

Cheese (Syrna) Paska for a 4.5" diameter flowerpot

Ingredients:

• 1⁄2 lb. Farmer's Cheese, aka Tvorog, at room temperature
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1⁄2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1⁄2 c. heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1⁄4 lb. whipped unsalted butter
• Grated rind of one lemon 
• 1⁄4 c. golden raisins
• 1⁄4 c. brandy
• 2 Tablespoons water

Cooking Instructions:

1. Warm a sieve or food mill with boiling water, then pass the farmers' cheese through and set aside somewhere warm.

2. In the top of a double boiler, mix egg yolks with sugar. Add cream and heat over barely simmering water, stirring constantly until bubbles form around the edge of pan. Don’t overheat or the eggs will curdle.

3. Remove from heat and add cheese and vanilla, mixing well.

4. Add butter and continue stirring until mixture cools. 

5. Stir in lemon rind.

6. Place in Vitamix or other high-powered blender and blend on High Speed for two minutes until mixture is almost as smooth as pudding.

7. Put brandy, water, and golden raisins in a small pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low; cook, covered, for 10 minutes. Pour while still hot into a jar. If liquid does not cover raisins, add more hot water until it does. Seal and allow to rest while paska drains in fridge. Raisins will plump up over 24 hours.

8. Line clay flower pot with a quadruple thickness of dampened cheesecloth. Pour the mixture inside and cover with cheesecloth.

9. Place the flowerpot in a large mug or bowl that leaves room for drainage underneath pot. Place a small plate or flat-bottomed receptacle on top of the paska surface and weigh down with a weight of at least 1 lb. Keep in refrigerator until serving time.

10. Refrigerate at least 24 hours. Flavor and texture improve with more time. Check weights: if they've pressed down the paska and are resting on the pot edges, replace with a smaller plate/receptacle and keep weighing it down with same or even a little additional weight. 

11. Unmold carefully and turn upside down on a plate. Decorate with drained brandied raisins.

12. Slice thinly. Best served with a bread babka as a spread/topping. Also lovely in a small dish with fresh berries.

POTLUCK CHECKOFF LIST

 

To make a nice outdoor picnic, these are the supplies needed. Split this list up between three or four families/individuals, and it'll be manageable!

Equipment
__Folding tables

__Folding chairs

__Tablecloth

__Tablecloth clips (some fun ones here: https://www.etsy.com/market/tablecloth_clips)

__Glasses

__Plates (if paper, bring three times the amount you think you'll need)
__Napkins (ditto above)

__Silverware

__Two garbage bags

__Box of quart-size ziplock bags (use for ice on the way in, and leftovers on the way back)

__Plastic bin (If using real china, glass, and silver, then also bring a plastic bin big enough to accommodate all used items so you can bring them back home in a sanitary fashion and wash them there)

 

 

Food, blessed on Easter if possible (include serving utensils)

 __Zakusky - fish and vegetables
 __Kolbasy and ham, assorted
 __Mustard and horseradish

 __Rye and/or other bread, sliced

 __Cream cheese and butter
 __Hard-boiled eggs, deviled and/or plain
 __Soup
 __Green Salad
 __Traditional Salad

 __Homemade Babka
 __Homemade cheese Paska
 __Poppyseed roll
 __Fruit
 __Nonalcoholic drink
 __Alcohol
 __Tea, coffee, milk, sugar
 

 

 

PASCHAL TROPARION