Kielbasa, eggs and other edible goodies overflowed dozens of baskets lined with white linen and lace at the St. Louis Church altar on Saturday.

The baskets would soon receive a sprinkling of holy water by the Rev. Mariusz Lis at a special Swieconka service for the largely Polish congregation at the Roman Catholic church on Danforth Street in Portland.

Swieconka is a centuries-old tradition observed in Poland and other Eastern European countries on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, when Polish Catholics bring the food for their Easter breakfast or dinner to church to be blessed.

“Everyone will get a piece at my house in Windham at brunch,” said Malgorzata Sobiera, who emigrated from Poland to the United States 14 years ago.

For some of the Polish natives in the congregation, the blessing of the baskets brought back memories of lavish three-day-long Easter celebrations back in their home country.

“We would start celebrating on Holy Friday,” said Hanna Niedzwicki of Old Orchard Beach.

Niedzwicki said after the Easter Sunday Mass, her whole village of Lomza, including firefighters, police and dignitaries, would take part in a procession dressed in their best clothes.

“It was very different than here,” said Niedzwicki, who came to the United States in 1992.

The St. Louis Church service was one of hundreds of Easter-related events being held around Maine this weekend to mark one of the most important days on the Christian calendar.

In Yarmouth, hundreds of basket-toting children, ages 2 to 7, managed to collect 3,000 eggs at Royal River Park in just under two minutes Saturday morning at the town’s annual Easter egg hunt.

In its 29th year, the hunt is sponsored by Yarmouth Community Services and the Village Improvement Society.

“There are a lot of smiles,” said emcee Kevin Broydrick of Youth Community Services.

Volunteers help make sure all children find eggs, dropping the plastic toy-filled treasures in the path of any empty-handed children even after the hunt commences. There was an Easter bunny on hand to greet the children. A two-man crew fashioned free custom-made balloon animals.

Easter baskets included ornate concoctions decorated with birds and flowers and quite a number of improvised and repurposed containers, such as grocery bags and beach pails.

Eben Featherstone, 3, carried a lime-green plastic Halloween jack-o’-lantern.

“Well, you know we are practical,” Eben’s mother, Debbi Featherstone of Yarmouth, explained.

Benjamin Ting, 4, held a Lightening McQueen cartoon character basket while his twin sister, Amy, shouldered a hot pink plastic Halloween jack-o’-lantern.

“Halloween slash Easter. It is how we roll here,” said their mother, Amy Belisle of Yarmouth.

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