Our Pascha Tablescape
One of the ways we celebrate major feast days in our home is by decorating our table with meaningful touches and preparing special foods—it simply feels right. Pascha (Orthodox Easter), known as the Feast of Feasts, celebrates the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and is the most important day of the entire liturgical year. Because of this, we love to go all out with our Orthodox Pascha table, creating a beautiful and symbolic Pascha table setup filled with traditional foods, candles, flowers and spring details. We also keep our Pascha table decorations up throughout Bright Week (the week following Pascha) as we continue to celebrate the joy of Christ’s Resurrection in our home.
For our family, it's very special as it’s the only Sunday morning we wake up and get to sit down and eat breakfast (brunch?) together. If you didn’t know, Orthodox Christians celebrate Pascha in the middle of the night, and we typically fast before communion, so this is a Sunday morning feast is a once a year occasion.
We've only been doing this for a few years now but it's become a cherished tradition in our family. I first got this inspiration from a friend of mine who had a big growing family and she shared some photos of their Pascha tablescape and I was immediately inspired! My hope is to show you an example of our feast (2025) to inspire you to bring beauty to your home this Pascha!
How to create a memorable Paschal Brunch:
🤍 Set out a beautiful table cloth and the nicest dishes/cups you own (or fancy paper plates 💕).
🤍Light some candles & set out some festive decorations (spring decor, cross, eggs, flowers).
🤍 Make your family’s favorite breakfast foods paired with any of your Pascha basket items. We do Pascha bread/cheese, fresh fruit, orange juice, bacon and BLTs (bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwiches).
🤍 Sing “Christ is risen!” together, and crack your red eggs!
🤍 Display an icon of the Resurrection.
I recognize this is not something everyone would desire to do, or even have the energy for- I truly understand and that's perfectly ok. Each and every one of us have our own gifts and talents that we offer back to the Lord and as a blessing to our families. And different seasons will allow for new and exciting traditions, or a pause on old ones. This season has been very humbling in that way. I'm thankful my girls took on much of the decorations this year as we repurposed most of it from years past.
Here is a video of our pascha table originally shared on Patristic Nectar Family’s Youtube channel:
What’s on our Pascha brunch menu?
Every family will have a different menu, but for the sake of inspiration and ideas, I’ll share ours. We keep things very simple. We use the leftovers from our pascha baskets from the night before (usually pascha cheese and pascha sweet bread), and add bacon, red eggs, fresh fruit, orange juice, and the fixins’ for BLTs (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches). By the time we begin, the table is already set (the night before) so all we do is heat up some bacon and take the items out of the fridge for a quick and yummy brunch!
As you prepare your own Orthodox Pascha table, I hope these photos and ideas have inspired you to create something both beautiful and meaningful for your family. Whether your table is simple or elaborate, what matters most is the joy it holds—the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection and bringing that joy to your home. These small touches become the foundation we are setting for our children and the memories they will carry them year after year. Leaving the table set, returning to it throughout the week (bright week), and continuing the celebration for the next 40 days, helps keep that joy alive in our homes.
Christ is Risen! May your Pascha table be filled with the light of Christ, beauty, and the deep, abiding joy of the Resurrection.
