Easter, or Pascha as they say here in Greece, is the largest feast in Greece. The Orthodox Easter does not always fall on the same date as the Catholic Easter as the Orthodox Church decides Easter according to the old Julian calendar, while the rest of the world uses the Gregorian calendar for deciding when Easter will be celebrated. If you have the opportunity, we recommend that you take a trip down to Greece for a week during the orthodox Easter celebrations for a lovely experience.
The Lent
A full 40 days before Easter, the Lent begins with the so-called Clean Monday, which marks the ending of the previous three-week-long carnival period (which is best to celebrate in the cities of Patras and Xanthi if you want to be part of something really special!). On Clean Monday, a red day in greece, the Lent begins as we said earlier and it lasts until Easter. This day is all about spending time in the great outdoors with your family, flying kites and eating good vegetarian food as the traditional bread called Lagana, Taramosalata which is a fish egg salad, eggplant salad, calamaris, octopus, olives and the special sweet Chalvas which is made from sesame seed oil.
Now you are probably thinking that there are a lot of traditions to keep in mind. And that is true, but all these smaller traditions make greek Easter so amazing. Everything seems to escalate and lead to the big easter week.
During Lent period you should traditionally not eat meat, butter, cheese, milk or eggs – products which come from animals or were once alive. Most important is that you don’t eat eggs which are the symbol of life itself. Nowdays not many follow the Lent for 40 days but most at least try to do so the last week before Easter.
Easter week
Easter week – Megali evdomada– begins with Palm sunday and after that the faithful go to church every day of the big week.
On Maundy Thursday all the preparations before all the preparations for Christ’s resurrection, which takes place Saturday night, begin. Now is the time tou bake the Easter cakes (tsoureki) and dye the eggs red, which symbolize the blood of Christ. One of the most beautiful church traditions during Easter week is Epitafios that occurs on Friday evening. Friday noon all church bells start ringing in a slow, mournful pace. The fact is that even today no work should be done until noon on Friday, and that is to show grief over the death of Christ. Even the shops that are open the rest of the day donät open until noon. After the body of Jesus is symbolically taken down from the cross, the body is placed on a catafalque which is the so-called Epitafios . All women and girls in the village (or district in the cities) come to church with flowers and decorate the catafalque. All day people come to church to pray, and in the evening there is a liturgy, and after that the flower-filled Epitafios is taken down.
The people with the priest -or priests- in the lead carrying crosses and sacred icons, form a procession which should be as big as possible, extending as far as possible through the village or neighborhood. All have lighted candles in their hands and the picture of the crowd walking with lit candles in the evening through the small city-alleys behind the flower decorated Epitafios is very powerful.
On Saturday night the great liturgy of the reurrection begins and people once again gather inside and outside the church. At midnight, all the lights in the church are turned off, the priest says the words Christos anestis – Christ is resurrected- and lights a candle symbolizing the light that Jesus lit for humanity.
At the same time fireworks and firecrackers are being fired off outside the church and the church bells ring happily. Everybody have their own candles with them to church – the larger and more ornate the better. Children get their special candles traditionally from their godparents. Those who are closest to the priest light their candle from his candle and then pass on the flame to all others. All family members and friends kiss on the cheek and repeat the words Christos anesti, which both during and after Easter is the usual greeting. Whoever gets greeted with these words responds Alithos anesti, meaning Christ has risen indeed.
Afterwards everyone retrns home with lit candles and many make a cross with the candle above their front door for protection against evil forces. After this ceremony, the lent is finally over and one can begin to indulge in meat and other goodies. Usually you start the night with Majiritsa , an easy Easter soup of meat, offal and green herbs. Everyone around the table knock their red-colored eggs against each other, and the one who manages to brake the shell of the other’s egg will according to tradition have luck for the rest of the year.
Easter Sunday
On Easter Sunday, people gather with family and friends and grill a whole lamb on a spit. The process often begins early in the morning as the lamb needs to be grilled for hours and hours over the coal bed to become juicy and tender. Except for the lamb it is also common to eat pork on a spit and Kokoretsi < strong> which is a Greek specialty of liver and intestines (does not sound so good but those who dare to taste will not be disappointed!), salads, tzatziki etc. It is usually also a tradition to give all the children new clothes and shoes and a big chocolate egg on this day. On Easter day everyone is eating and drinking from dawn to dusk and dancing to traditional greek music. If the weather is good, which it almost always is, this will certainly be a day to remember.
