Easter celebration and customs in Greece

Written by Alexandra and Despoina

The week before the Sunday of Easter is called Holy Week by Orthodox Christians and it is celebrated with great solemnity.

Every afternoon of Holy Week the believers go to church and watch the Divine Liturgy.

On Holy Thursday is the representation of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Housewives dye eggs red (red is the colour of life as well as a representation of the blood of Christ). From ancient times, the egg has been a symbol of the renewal of life, and the message of the red eggs is victory over death. They also bake tsoureki the traditional sweat Easter bread.

Holy Friday is the holiest day of Holy Week. It is a day of mourning.  Traditionally, women and children take flowers to the church to decorate the Epitaphio (the symbolic bier of Christ). The decoration and the procession of Epitafios happens in the neighbourhoods of every parish.

This day even the less religious people go to church. Children meet their God parents to get their Easter gifts and their  “labatha”. “Labatha” is a  special candle made for Easter and usually it is  prettily decorated. Children light their labatha on Holy Saturday’s midnight.  

At midnight on Holy Saturday the sequence of Resurrection takes place.   On Holy Saturday, the Holy Flame is brought to Greece by military jet from the Holy sepulchre, and then it is carried to every church. All people hold a white candle and the children their labatha to light it with the Holy Flame.

Housewives cook the “mayiritsa” ('Mayiritsa' is a traditional soup, which is eaten on Holy Saturday after the resurrection and it contains intestines and livers of lamp, green onions, dill and mint.)

At midnight, after the hymn which declares the resurrection of Jesus Christ is sung at church, during the evening mass, church bells ring joyfully, people tap their eggs with one another and firecrackers and fireworks are set off.

In many places of Greece  after the resurrection, in the yard of the church , people burn the Juda’s effigy.

Easter Sunday: People gather together at houses or neighborhoods to celebrate the most important event of Orthodox Christians. This celebration is associated with the roasting of the lamb on a spit.

This year we celebrate Easter on 5^th of May as the Greek Orthodox church keeps on using the Julian calendar.

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