Picturing Pascha (and Paskas!)

Father Aleksij Tovt/Toth blessing Paschal food, location = ?

Хрістос воскрес! Воістину воскрес!
Christos voskres! Voistynu voskres!
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

Anyone who follows Carpatho-Rusyn Facebook groups such as Carpatho-Rusyns Everywhere! and Lemko Rusyns and Friends would have seen a deluge over the last two weeks of wonderful photographs of food preparation for Easter -- paskas, hrudka/sŷrec/jaječnyk, butter lambs, chrin; the elaborately assembled baskets of the foods taken for blessing; the moving vigils at the Tomb of Christ, and photos and videos of the services and the blessing of the Paschal foods.

It occurs to me that despite these beloved traditions of Carpatho-Rusyns' observance of the Feast of Feasts, the summit of the Christian liturgical year, the photo record of various Rusyn communities' observance of these customs is fairly scant once you go back as recently as World War II.

The Amazing (Rusyn) World of Local Newspapers

Since being introduced to the newspapers.com website a few months ago, I've saved dozens of articles from old newspapers from towns and cities all over Pennsylvania. It's astounding how much local Carpatho-Rusyn community news can be found there.

I always knew an essential source for my history writing would be the Rusyn immigrant press (in all its ethnonational and political incarnations), but now having easy access to the secular local press of decades past has revealed an entirely new wealth of source material.