It's All About Easter!

I am taking the liberty of posting the information we received from CYA (with some of my own edits) about the upcoming holiday. This holiday is bigger and more important than Christmas for Orthodox Christians, and you see it everywhere. (Click on the links for further information.)

Greek Orthodox Easter

Greek Easter does not always fall in the same date as what most countries know as ‘Easter” because the Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar when calculating Easter. So, it is a movable holiday. Its celebration falls on the first Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox.

It is the holiest of Greek holidays, and as in other Christian traditions, it is also celebration of Spring. During Easter in Greece people leave the cities to spend the holiday in the countryside, usually in ancestral villages. Pasch is unique in almost every corner of Greece.

The uniqueness in celebrating Easter the traditional way lies more in the week leading up to the event rather than the actual religious holiday. Special traditions mark not only the mourning of Christ’s Crucifixion and the celebration of Resurrection, but also the passage from winter to spring.

Easter customs related to the religious holiday of Easter which is the biggest celebration of the Orthodox Christians and the one richest in folklore. The word Pascha, Easter in Greek, stems from the Jewish Pesach which means Passover.

Jewish people celebrate Pesach to commemorate their liberation from the Egyptians and the passage of the Red sea, while Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ the Savior and the passage from death to life. The corresponding Greek word for Pascha is Lambri (Brightness) because the day of the resurrection of Christ is a day full of joy and exhilaration.

All over the country a plethora of customs and traditions are observed during the week prior to Easter (Holy Week)- between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

The preparations for the celebration of the Resurrection start on Holy Thursday. On that day housewives traditionally prepare  tsourekia (sweet buns resembling brioche) and color eggs with special red dyes. Ever since antiquity the egg symbolizes the renewal of life and the red color symbolizes the blood of Christ and the victory over death.  In the past, people used to place the first red egg on the icon stand of the house in order to cast out evil spirits. In some villages they used to mark the head and the back of small lambs with the red dye used for the dyeing of the eggs, in order to protect them. They also used to keep one of the big round Holy Thursday loaves at the icon stand in order to protect the members of the family of the spells.

Holy Thursday evening church services include a symbolic representation of the crucifixion, and the period of the mourning begins. In many villages-and in cited as well- women will sit in church throughout the night, in traditional mourning,

Holy or Great Friday is the most sacred day of the Holy Week, the day of the culmination of the passion of Christ with the disposition from the cross and the Christ’s burial. Because it is a day of mourning, housewives do not do any house chores, avoiding even cooking. It is also the only day during the year when the Divine Liturgy is not read. Flags are hung at half-mast and church bells ring all day in a slow mournful tone. Women and children go to church to decorate the Epitaph (Bier of Christ) with flowers they collect or buy. In the morning of Good Friday, Christ’s Burial is reenacted in church and in the evening the Epitaph procession takes place. The Epitaph is carried on the shoulders of the faithful in a procession through the community and members of the congregation follow carrying candles.

On Holy or Great Saturday morning, preparations start for the festive dinner of the night of the Resurrection and housewives cook maghiritsa (a tripe, herb, egg, and lemon soup). The Holy Flame is brought to Greece for Jerusalem by military jet and distributed to waiting Priests who carry it to their local churches. The event is always televised and if there is a threat of bad weather or a delay, the entire country agonizes until the flame arrives safely.

The midnight Service of the Resurrection is an occasion attended by everyone  who is able, including children, each holding a white candle. Special candles made for Easter called Labatha are often given as gifts to children from their God-parents, or if they are not around, from parents. These candles can be lavishly decorated with favorite children’s heroes or storybook characters. These candles are only used for one Easter midnight service. (See more pics of the decorated candles at the end of this post.)

decorated (mostly white) candles are available all over the city and from the street vendors

Shortly before midnight, to everyone with their candles, the Holy Light is distributed by the Priest. When the leader chants “Christ is risen” (Christos Anesti) right at midnight, people exchange wishes and the so-called “Kiss of Love.”

The Holy Flame (Holy Light) is brought home for blessings; families make the sign of the cross on the door post over the front door of the houses for good luck. Then they all gather around the festively laid table, they crack red eggs against each other to see whose egg will survive uncracked. This continues around the table and the person with the uncracked egg enjoys good luck,

these are some red eggs you can buy in the grocery stores,
but I'm thinking a lot of people dye their own.

On Easter Sunday morning (there is no church service) in many parts of the country lamb is prepared on the spit. In other regions the meat for the Easter table is roasted in the oven. There is a festive atmosphere everywhere and people eat and dance usually until late into the night. 

Each village or town on an island or mainland in Greece has its own customs - here are two:

MYKONOS

Women repaint their home white and they bake a special bread called the Lazarakia that is of a human figure.

On Great and Holy Friday the local women are on the streets around 9:00 pm singing some gospel songs; it is nice to watch the ceremony even if you are not a believer. The small alleys of Chora are really packed with people following then from one chapel to another.

They celebrate Holy Saturday midnight at the Palaiokastro monastery in Ano Meria and in the Cathedral of Alefkandras. In the evening of Easter Sunday at the main square they burn Judas.*

SANTORINI

Saturday before Palm Sunday (resurrection of Lazarus) in the village squares they put together a Lazarus which is  big wooden cross with flowers around it. In Oia all the services are held at the Church (Panagia Platsani). At the village Pyrgos on Good Friday, after the burial of Christ, people are out on the streets announcing it and the bells of all churches are ringing in a slow mournful tone. At the Epitaph on the same village, the women throw rosewater while the procession is happening.

In some villages on Easter Sunday there is a court case for the “Jew” who is convicted to death, he is hanged and burned.

At another village called Emborio the people are out on the streets clapping together metal pots and pans or whatever metal they can find for the bad spirit and evil to disappear, Meeting of two epitaphs in the central square of Fira. Apart from tsoureki they make melitinia a local dessert especially cooked for Easter.

*Easter is a time of joyous celebration in the Christian Church. Joyous and cathartic celebration. Joyous and cathartic and, in some places, violent celebration. Take the tradition known as the Burning of the Judas. Common in several Latin American nations and in some parts of Greece, the practice involves stringing up an effigy representing the Apostle that betrayed Jesus and either burning it or exploding it from within with fireworks.

In recent years, crowds have used the effigies to represent politicians or businessmen who have wronged the people. In Venezuela in 2008, a Judas dressed up as an Exxon representative (above) was burned following the settlement of a legal fight between the nation and the oil giant. The tradition has also been a venue for misunderstanding, as a 2005 U.S. State Department report criticized Greece for its annual "burning of the Jew." Greece essentially responded by saying, "you're idiots." ~source

So, what about those beautiful colored eggs at the beginning of this post? Well, that is a sweet lady street vendor selling hand-painted wooden eggs that are intended for decoration, I'm sure. I'll bet she doesn't get many requests for a photo, as she was pretty shy!