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To the Western mind the continual kissing and giving of eggs on the streets appear strangely out of keeping with the solemnity of the hour. To see a couple of bearded men hugging and kissing each other and each other's wives on the public streets, with the salutation, "Christos vozkress," is indeed peculiar.
You go to church and the doorkeeper gravely says, "Christos vozkress," while he of the cloak-room echoes the sentiment to the impoverishment of one's exchequer. But this seeming mendicancy is not confined to these classes, for even the reverend fathers and brethren walk in the same footsteps unblushingly.
Relatives and friends kiss each other and shake hands, and the salutation, "Christos vozkress," with the refrain, "Voestenno vozkress," is heard on every side. Immediately after midnight a salute of one hundred and one guns is given from the fortress to greet the sacred morn.
It is ornamented with candied sugar and usually has the Easter salutation on it: "Christos vozkress" "Christ is risen" the whole surmounted with a large gaudy red-paper rose. The paska is made of cords, pyramidal in shape, and contains a few raisins, and, like the former, has also a paper rose inserted on the top.
Either on foot or by carriage they call upon the well-to-do of their church, give the usual salutation, "Christos vozkress," and the kiss, partake of the general hospitality, and get their gratuity or "Na Chai," as it is called, and retire.
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