Traditions of Easter

Easter, Good Friday and Tradition
Good Friday: the Friday of Holy Week, kept in some churches as a fast in memory of our Savior's passion or suffering; the anniversary of the crucifixion. In the Orthodox Church the feast of Easter is officially called Pascha, the word which means the Passover. It is the eternal Passover from death to life and from earth to heaven. Easter (Pascha) begins on the Saturday of Lazarus (the Saturday before Palm Sunday). The Christian symbolism of Easter was first underlined by the Apostle Paul.

When the Christians began to celebrate Easter, they retained some of the features of the Jewish Passover, while at the same time adding others.

This can be seen from the paschal lamb and the red eggs. People gather in church every evening throughout Holy Week, especially on Holy Tuesday, Good Friday and on Holy Saturday, the night of the Resurrection. Holy Thursday is the day for dyeing eggs red. The egg, is a symbol of life, while red is the colour of life. Good Friday is a day of mourning. The drama of the death of Christ is followed with great devoutness. It is custom in most parts of Greece to have a late night dinner with seafood after the procession of the bier. This special dinner includes all kind of seafood. This is the only day during the 40-days fasting period that precedes the Resurrection, that animal proteins are consumed. This great period of Lent before Easter is called by the Orthodox Church, Tessaracoste (Quadragesimal), which comes from the word forty (the 40 days of "fasting"). However, today less and less people fast during the Easter Lent. On Holy Saturday evening, the Resurrection mass takes place. After the Resurrection of Christ (Anastasi), the Easter Lent is finished and Christians may eat animal products again. Their first dinner includes the mageiritsa soup. Mageiritsa is a soup served only this night and it is made of the lamb's internal organs: liver, heart, lungs and intestines with an egg-lemon sauce. After having the soup, red eggs are cracked.

Every member of the family will choose an egg and then try to crack the eggs of the others with his own. At the end, only one egg will remain uncracked and the owner will have good luck. On Easter Sunday friends and family gather in homes, eating lamb on the spit, kokoretsi and kalitsounia. It is a big feast, sometimes followed by dancing. - The lamb of the Easter Sunday is a symbol for the sacrifice of Jesus, who was sacrificed like a lamb for the salvation of people.