As the Passion week with prayers, penance and vegetarian food came to an end, most of the Christian households in Kerala started festivity with an early visit to the church to attend the Easter Sunday service and then to prepare scrumptious meals. Soon after sunrise, the church priests gave out pieces of cake and in some places a glass of wine to signal the end of the 50-day lent. After exchanging the customary Easter pleasantry, people rushed back to their home to have the most important meal of the day - the Easter breakfast. The Easter breakfast includes 'appam' (rice flour mixed with toddy), chicken stew, beef roast, at some places duck is the important non-vegetarian dish, besides steamed bananas, egg roast and a piece of cake. Once the breakfast is over, the women folk after are back in action as the kitchen comes alive yet again. Generally, the traditional Easter lunch is rice accompanied by non-vegetarian dishes with various varieties of meat and fish. While the Catholic community lays special emphasis on pork, the others rely on beef and chicken and in some places mutton, but a fish fry and the traditional fish curry is everywhere.
