Happy Easter, have you got enough dough?

Hello and happy Easter from My Five Romances, even if the 2020 version is very sombre and celebrations have had to be curtailed. Still, judging by social media, people in quarantine or social isolation at home have been doing a lot of baking. Home cooking has become a theme for 2020.

Those cultures that celebrate Easter each have their own ways of doing it. In the Portuguese-speaking countries you will probably be offered massa sovada (which translates as kneaded dough, massa being the word for dough). Massa sovada is a sweetbread, and like many Portuguese cakes and pastries, it contains heaps of sugar and lots of egg. Some flour too, I would guess. I believe it originated in the Azores (a recipe is here). A good Portuguese cook that I know adds a nice touch – she boils eggs in water and cochineal (which, as I have just discovered by looking up that word, comes from a scale insect!) to give the shells a pinkish hue, and then puts the eggs in the dough to bake. The photo at top features her creations (forgive the styling, I did it! Style is not my forte.)

In Orthodox countries, particularly Romania, painting eggs is an Easter tradition and it is a highly regarded art form (you can buy wooden ones as souvenirs). Indeed, my Colloquial Romanian, published by Routledge, features a gorgeous collection of eggs on the front cover. This is the third edition.

How do you like these eggs?

Routledge also publishes text books in my other Romance languages in its Colloquial series and has many dictionaries and other useful linguistic texts too.

Easter greetings and phrases in my five Romances

French

Happy Easter is joyueses Pâques (for some reason it’s plural) and an Easter egg is un oeuf de Pâques. Round about this time of the year, people like to partir à la chasse aux œufs – to go on an egg hunt, which is more fun when the eggs are made of chocolate, isn’t it?

Spanish

Happy Easter is feliz Pascua; an Easter egg is un huevo de Pascua. Los saludos de Pascua are Easter greetings. Spanish has other interesting expressions: de Pascuas a Ramos means once in a blue moon (literally from Easter to Palm Sunday); …y santas pascuas… means … and that’s that; hacerle la pascua a alguien is to mess things up for someone. Which is what coronavirus has done. And, strangely, Pascuas in the feminine plural form means Christmas – felices Pascuas is Merry Christmas. 

Portuguese

Unlike Spanish, Portuguese seems to have very little in the way of Easter idiomatic excitement. Happy Easter is feliz Páscoa; an Easter egg is um ovo de Páscoa; and o coelho da Páscoa is an Easter bunny.

Italian

Happy Easter is buona Pasqua (it’s more common to say ‘good Easter‘); best wishes for Easter is auguri di buona Pasqua; an Easter egg is un uovo di Pasqua; a common question is cosa fai per Pasqua? – what are you doing at Easter? The common answer this year is, staying at home!

Romanian

Happy Easter is Paște fericit; an Easter egg is un ouă de Paște; the painted eggs are often called oua încondeiate – written eggs (think of it as an extremely elaborate calligraphy). 

This time last year I was on holiday in northern Portugal over Easter. This year I had planned to go to New Caledonia for the Easter break, to refresh my French, but instead I am being sensibly anti-social. Let’s hope Easter 2021 will be more joyful. M5R