Before cakes baked two or three, or even once a year, on most major
holidays, connected with the change of seasons: either in the New year,
or in early spring (the beginning of the agricultural year)or in autumn,
on the occasion of the harvest (the end of the agricultural year). This
was due not only to the relatively high cost of Easter cakes, to
prepare which requires a lot of food security products, but also by the
complexity and duration of the manufacturing process[2].
According
to Slavic folk traditions, Easter cakes acted as a ritual bread that
was baked usually before the sowing of sour fermented dough. This bread
was sacrificed earth elements or ancestors, to gain their support, and
to ensure the fertility of the earth and abundant harvest.
Over
time, the Christian and pagan traditions are inextricably intertwined in
the national consciousness. And if its value was mainly Christian, at
the household level, the peasants continued its active use in producing
and protective rituals[1].