A
SPRING TRADITION IN
GREECE
THE
CELEBRATION OF EASTER
Easter is
one of the greatest religious
celebrations in Greece.
It reaches its
peak during The
Holy Week and
especially from Great
Thursday to Easter
Sunday.
On Great
Thursday the housewives
in Greece do
not do any other housework
and instead they
take eggs which
they paint red.
The colour symbolizes
Christ's blood which
was shed to save
people from their
sins. On the
same day they
make a special kind of
bread called tsoureki.
In the
evening everybody goes
to church where
the 12 Gospels are heard
which describe what
happened to Jesus Christ
the last days
of his earthly life before
he was crucified. After unmarried
girls start decorating
with flowers the
Epitaphios which symbolises
the coffin of
Christ which on
Great Friday is
taken out from
the church and
carried around in the streets
symbolising the carrying
of Christ's Body
to the cave in which
he was placed after his
crucification.
On Great
Friday noone cooks.
We just eat
vegetables and no
oil. It is
the saddest day
of the year. Even the
sky is cloudy on this
day mourning Jesus's
death.
On Great
Saturday at midnight
we celebrate in
churches the Resurrection of Christ. We
all hold candles
and sing 'Hristos
Anesti' which means
Christ has risen in the skies. Fireworks are thrown into
the air to
celebrate Christ's Resurrection. When we return
home with the
lit candles we
make a cross at
the main entrance
door symbolising the cross
on which Christ
was crucified and
then we light
the small olive
oil light in
the house to
keep the Holy Light
of our candles which was
brought from Jerusalem where Jesus had lived.
Finally, on
Easter Sunday we
celebrate with traditional
dances and songs
and we eat roast lamb
as shown in
the picture.
it looks nice...
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see how much similar some of your religious traditions are to ours. At Easter in some Spanish villages and towns there are religious parades in the streets and people participate, though not as much as they used to do. As far food there are plenty of recipes with eggs and spring vegetables as a way of welcoming spring too. Really nice, thank you for sharing.
ReplyDelete