Happy Easter – Greek Orthodox Edition!

Greek Orthodox Easter took place on Sunday, May 2.  It was filled with a week-long preparation leading up to the celebration Sunday. I am so thankful that I got to experience parts of this important holiday!

I live right across from a church, so I often wake up (at all hours!) to the sound of church bells. For sure every Sunday, and often other days throughout the month as well. The week leading up to Easter they were sounding quite often. 

Traditionally, Saturday night there is a big ceremony, leading up to midnight; the time in which Christ rises from the dead for Easter. However, due to still being in lockdown (with a nightly curfew), the celebrations were moved earlier. 

Beginning around 8:30pm all the churches of Athens had ceremonies taking place. I decided to meet two of my new friends at the Metropolitan Church of Athens, right in the center of Monastiraki. This beautiful church was surrounded by many, all there to see the traditional ceremony. 

An important aspect of the Greek Orthodox Easter includes the lighting of candles. A Holy Flame is flown all the way over from Jerusalem that ignites each candle of the city. The Holy Flame is transferred through candle to candle, person to person, in every Athens church. 

It was amazing to see people walking significant distances throughout Athens holding their candles, transferring the flame to others located all around the city. 

Accompanying this sacred holiday is fireworks! They are set off all throughout the city, in many different locations. They were beautiful and a great ending to Easter ceremonies in the churches all throughout the city. 

Another Easter holiday tradition is the cracking of red eggs. They can be found all over the grocery stores premade, or similarly to the Western Easter, people can hard-boil their eggs and dye them red themselves.

Then, children and adults play a game: you and another person hit your eggs together, and whichever one cracks is the loser. The intact egg is the winner! Following the church service and fireworks, my other expat friends and I made our way to one of the many squares to play this game. 

The next day, on Easter Sunday, my coworker friends and I ordered Greek food for dinner. I, being the picky eater I am, just ordered a typical chicken skewer, but my other friends ordered different lamb dishes. One of my friends was even brave enough to try the very traditional dishes, including kokoretsi! 

I’m sure this Greek Orthodox Easter looked very different due to the pandemic circumstances. However, it warmed my heart to see people safely coming together to celebrate this sacred holiday. 

Καλό Πάσχα (Kalo Pascha), Happy Easter!

❤️
Anna