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Today is Easter ! greek Easter according to gregorian calendar

Today is Easter ! greek Easter according to gregorian calendar

April 2018 · 8 min read

Today is a celebration!!!!

Today, Sunday April 8th, we celebrate Easter together with Greek friends and acquaintances in our adopted country Greece.

Easter is for the Greeks the biggest festival of the whole year**. It is, unlike in Germany, celebrated in really every household. Everywhere in the countryside and in the cities, families celebrate together until the early hours of the morning. There is lamb that has been grilled over charcoal, it is eaten for hours, drunk and of course also danced.


Easter 2016


The Greek Easter is one of the Christian Orthodox holidays, which differ from Catholic Easter and can be up to almost five weeks apart each year. Easter is one of the most important traditions in Greece and is also called Holy Easter (Greek = Ágio Pás-cha). At Easter the sufferings of Jesus Christ are presented and celebrated in a very special way.


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In different regions of Greece the Easter customs and eating can be different, but basically the typical tradition does not change. The traditional Easter bread (Greek = Tsuréki), red eggs and of course the Greek Easter pastry (Kulurákia) must not be missing for Greek Easter.


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Greek Easter already begins 40 days before Easter with Lent. Christians do not eat meat and eat seafood that contains no blood** (e.g. squid), rice and vegetables. In addition, five hymns are sung every Friday in the Greek Orthodox Church about the Holy Mother of God.
After this time follows the Big Week (Greek = Megáli Ebdomáda) or the week of Jesus' sufferings, in which no oil or dairy products may be eaten in addition to meat. This week Jesus sacrificed himself for humanity by shedding his blood. For this reason, Christians must not ** come into contact with blood** or eat food derived from animals.


My last present for all who were invited to the Easter party. A napkin ring from a 10 drachma coin.

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The Great Week begins on the Great Monday and ends on the Great Saturday at midnight with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every evening the service takes place, during which many Christians go into the church and follow the Psalms attentively through the life of God. On Great Tuesday the priest performs a play (Greek = Tropário tis Kassianís) about a beautiful woman who falls in love, sells her body to men and finally becomes a nun who spends her life exclusively ** in the monastery and devotes herself to God** to free herself from her sins. The next day, after the service, Christians receive a piece of cotton wool, which they dip in oil and then cross their forehead so that their sins may be forgiven and they are ready to receive the blessing of the priest after their confession on the morning of the Great Thursday (known as Maundy Thursday).


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Holy Thursday** is one of the most important days of Greek Easter because on this day the twelve Gospels describing the sufferings of God are read out. According to the sixth Gospel all the lights of the church go out and the faithful follow with lit candles and glassy eyes the reenactment of the Crucifixion of Jesuss and sing the ancient Greek psalm "Símeron kremáte epi ksílou...... " ("Today he is hung on the wood......"). At this moment you can hear the hammering of the nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross on hands and feet. It is a very emotional moment and most believers wonder with tears in their eyes why Jesus had to sacrifice himself for humanity and suffer so much. Then the cross with the body of Jesus Christ is placed in the middle of the church and people lay flowers and wreaths in front of it to express their grief about his death. After this procedure the last six Gospels are recited and after the service very many Christians stay there overnight to spend the last hours with him before the burial of Jesus to show him their love and pay him their last respects. Young women and men adorn the whole night with numerous white and red flowers of the season his wooden coffin, on which the body of Jesus Christ is laid on the morning of Good Friday. In Greek it is called Epitáfios. It is a gold-embroidered scarf representing the body of Jesus with the Holy Mother Mary and the angels.


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On Good Friday** the priest takes off Jesus' body from the cross** (Greek = Apokathílosi). Here Jesus body is depicted on a piece of wood and symbolically represented. Then the body is wrapped in a white sheet and placed behind the Holy Table (Agía Trápeza). At the same moment the Epitáfios, i.e. the gold-embroidered cloth with the body of Jesus, is placed on the wooden coffin and many women walk around the coffin several times, sprinkle petals on it and spray it with myrrh. On the evening of Good Friday, during the divine service, the priest and his entourage carry the coffin decorated with flowers out of the church and walk around the church with him and the faithful. This process symbolizes the number of days until the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After this tour (Periforá) four men lift up the Epitáfio in front of the entrance to the church and the Christians walk under it and take some flowers with them that stand for goodness and health. They also receive the Holy Blessing through the symbolic bow before the Lord.


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On Great Saturday in the morning most Christians go to church again and take the bread (symbolizes the body of Jesus) and the wine (symbolizes the blood of Jesus) to themselves, so that they are blessed and wish each other a Good Resurrection (Kalí Anástasi)*. On Saturday evening all people gather again in the church, solemnly dressed with the traditionally decorated candle (Greek = Lampáda) in their hands and wait for the big moment. Throughout the ceremony, the priest sings various psalms, accompanied by the song of the people. As soon as the ancient Greek verse "Défte lávete fós" ("Come and take light") sounds, the Holy Light is passed on by the priest to every believer until all candles are lit. At midnight, the Psalm (Tropárion) finally resounds, announcing the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

"Christós anésti ek nekrón ("Christ is risen from the dead,
thanáto thánaton patísas with His death He defeated death,
kai tis en tis mnímasi and those who were in the graves,
zoín charisámenos.")

While the priest and the crowd sing this three times together, the bells ring simultaneously, fireworks light up the sky, the candles burn, all embrace and kiss. Of course, the faithful pray to each other by giving each other the words Christós Anésti (Jesus is risen) and Alithós Anésti (He is truly risen). Finally, they wish each other Chrónia pollá (All the best).


After the congratulations most of them go home to finally enjoy the first meat dish after a long Lent. The traditional soup, known in Greek as Majirítsa, consists of offal from lamb, liver, lungs, intestines, heart and various aromatic herbs as well as a lemon sauce. Moreover, the red coloured eggs (symbolising the blood of Jesus) are beaten against each other and the one whose egg remains whole and is not damaged is the happy one for the whole year. Some allow themselves an Easter joke by buying wooden eggs, colouring them red and thus winning the egg beating every year. The traditional Easter bread (Tsuréki) and the Greek Easter pastry (Kulurákia) are a must for midnight meal.


**I'll have a glass of retsina here. All right then..Chrónia pollá.... all the best!
**

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Sources:
www.swr.de Why does the Orthodox Church celebrate Easter on a different date?

  • wikipedia.org Orthodox Churches
  • brauchwiki.de Greek Easter
  • All pictures and videos © Holger Jacob (@greece-lover)

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