Added: 06/08/2006 |
Greek Easter - the Most Festive Holiday with Great Foods and Joyous CelebrationEaster time, from the carnivals that come before the Lenten fast through Holy Week and the celebrations of Easter, is a special season in
Greece. Since the date of the Orthodox Greek Easter is based on a modified Julian calendar and the Western world uses the Gregorian calendar, the festivities do not coincide. The next time that both dates for Easter come on the same time will be in 2007.
Greek Easter combines the religious resurrection with the rebirth of nature in all its springtime glory. The countryside is crimson with fields of red poppies and storks nesting in trees and on rooftops.The Greek Easter celebration begins after the Athens festivals and 40 days of fasting. The Carnival or Apokria season starts on the Sunday of Teloni and Fariseou and ends on Shrovetide Sunday with the Burning of the Carnival King- setting fire to an enormous effigy of Judas in the early evening. The fireworks and feasting continue throughout the night. The next day, Kathar Deftra or Kathari Deutera, is known as Clean Monday or Ash Monday.
For Greeks, Clean Monday is one of the most festive holidays of the year. Decorated with the colorful local almond trees and mimosas, nature calls children and their parents into the hills of Athens and the Greek countryside. Flying kites and feasting at local taverns or outdoor picnics is how Lent begins in Greece. If Apokria, Kathar Deftra and Lenten Sunday feasts are the preliminaries for Greek Easter, Holy Week is the peak of these activities. On Holy Thursday the bright dyed red eggs are prepared. Tradition says that the Virgin Mother, Mary, dyed eggs this color to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and to celebrate life. Every Greek family prepares these eggs as part of the Easter Sunday Resurrection Table. On Good Friday, flags at homes and government buildings are set to mark the mournful day. The Procession of the Epitphios of Christ, the Ritual Lament mourns the death of Christ on the Cross-, with the symbolic decorated coffin carried through the streets.
Early Saturday morning the food preparations would begin, the baking of Greek Easter bread studded with red, hard-boiled eggs, cookies,
pastries and a special soup called "Mayeritsa" made from lambs' heads and knuckles. The Mayeritsa would be eaten after the Saturday Midnight services and again at the Sunday afternoon festivities. Holy Saturday is filled with anticipation of the religious celebration of Easter and the Resurrection. People begin to gather in the churches and squares in cities, towns and villages by 11 p.m. for the Easter services.
Early Sunday morning the roasting of the Easter lamb would begin - usually outside in the villages. The bottom of the roasting pit is filled
with charcoal, pinewood and the meat is rubbed with oregano and mint and secured on a spit. The dishes with plenty of green salads particularly lettuce, which is in season at Greek Easter, lots of good red wine or retsina is served. In addition to all of the other special foods, people would also play a game with red, hard-boiled eggs. Each person would select an egg and try to crack their opponent's egg. The egg which remains whole ensures luck for its owner.
Of all the Christian feast days, Easter is the greatest time for foods, feasting and celebration to people in the Greek Orthodox faith.
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