This Lent, many of my "religious" posts focused on food and the tradition of fasting as one of the traditional penitential disciplines of the season.

As Lent draws to a close, I thought I'd finish out this series by discussing a beautiful Slavic tradition — the Blessing of Easter Foods.

Before Lent began, we talked about the reasoning behind Mardi Gras/Carnevale traditions. As part of this celebration, we eat all of the foods from which we will fast during Lent.

The Blessing of Easter Foods is the reverse. We prepare a basket filled with the good things that will be part of breakfast or lunch on Easter Day. As you might expect, the basket is filled with foods you haven't eaten in 40 days along with some other traditional accompaniments. Often the basket is covered with a beautiful cloth, embroidered with Easter designs. Once prepared, the basket is carried to Church for a special blessing either on Holy Saturday or early on Easter morning.

My basket will be pretty traditional. I will have some dyed Easter eggs, a traditional Easter bread called paska (a sweet egg bread decorated with religious designs), a relish-like accompaniment of beets and horseradish, small lambs molded out of butter, salt, and a chocolate fudge egg.

Once blessed, the basket will come with me to Easter dinner. We'll begin the meal with slices of paska spread with the butter from the lambs and we'll finish with slices of the chocolate egg. I can't wait!