Greek Easter Traditions

How Easter is Celebrated in Greece

GREEK EASTER SUNDAY 2011 IS AT APRIL 24TH

In modern day Greece, you can say the holiday starts with Kathera Deutera, The Clean Monday, which is the first day of Lent.

During Lent, which lasts for forty days before Easter, one is not supposed to eat anything that comes form animals with blood in its veins. Basically, that means no meat, fish, milk, cheese and egg. Lobster and caviar is fine. So is ouzo and tsipouro (which actually goes much better with sea food than champagne).

Not many people follow Lent strictly until Greek Easter, but it´s common to quit for instance only meat or cheese, or maybe chocolate or wine - to give up something which is not very good for your health. Restaurants and fast food shops will normally have special menus during this time of the year, for everyone who do follow Lent.

The big weekI megali evdomada, the big week, is the week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. Now we really are building up to the big feast Sunday - despite every day of the week being ordinary working days.

Here in Eleftheres you´ll see how houses and fences are being painted, curtains and carpets washed.

Every afternoon the church is packed.

On Thursday the Greek Easter bread, tsoureki is baked and the Easter eggs dyed.

A revival of Jesus´ last daysThe difference between the Eastern and the Western churches´ Easter celebration is that the orthodox church relives the last week of the life of Jesus.

From Thursday night to Friday morning there is a wake in the church, in memory of Jesus´ last night, that he spent awake in the Gethsemane gardens.

Good Friday you´ll hear the church bells ring all day, for the funeral of Christ. As he Bible said he died in the ninth hour, at nine o´clock (as precisely as Greeks can do it) there will be a symbolic funeral procession with a symbolic coffin. All the villagers will normally participate in the quiet procession, carrying candles.

Saturday is the last day of Lent and filled with preparations for the midnight meal, traditionally a soup made from the intestines of lamb, mayeritsa

Before midnight everyone gathers at the church. Be there early evening if you want to be sure to get in. The rest of us just stay outside in the yard or the street.

This is the big moment:

Just before midnight all lights are switched off, as a symbol of Jesus´descending to the kingdom of death, before the priest a moment after announces Christos anesti, Christ is reborn.

People start cheering, shouting, greeting and kissing each other, the fireworks go off and guns are fired.

Everyone carries candles and lit them with the holy flame - representatives from the Greek church have transported a candle lit by the eternal burning flame in the Church of the holy Grave in Jerusalem back to Greece. The fire is spread from candle to candle all over Greece.

We carry the candle carefully home and use the flame to draw a cross above the entrance door for protection from all evil. Ideally, the flame should be kept alive until next Greek Easter.

The feast can begin

We also bring Easter eggs to the Midnight mass Saturday. It´s said that your close your mouth with an egg when Lent starts and opens it with an egg when it finishes. It´s a game both outside the church and in the next days to try to break each others´ eggs by hitting them towards each other (my kids have great fun with this using wooden eggs that looks very much like the real!).

The first meal now that the Lent is over is usually the typical Easter soup, mayeritsa, eaten Saturday night. After the midnight meal any one who has the energy go out and party until next day...

Easter Sunday family and friends gather for the big Easter meal, which consist of roasted lamb or goat, plus loads of different salads and mezedakia. There´s a smell of roasted meat over the entire country...

The pictures on this page is taken by Michalis Pornalis, who illustrated my first book about Greece.

Return from Greek Easter to KAIROS homepage

Greek Easter Eggs

KAIROS garden - WHERE TIME AND DESTINY MEETS

The ancient Greeks had two words for time:
Chronos is the strict scheduled time. Kairos is the transient time.
Often described as the moment when time and destiny meets.

SBI!