HOLY WEEK IN GREECE

Easter in GreeceFrom the 7th Primary School of Agii Anargyri, Athens,

Greece

In Greece, the Holy Weel starts on Monday 29th March.Schools close on Friday 26th March and re-open on Thomas Sunday (Easter holidays last about two weeks).

At school, children make Easter drawings,dye eggs and decorate candles to use for Saturday before Easter Sunday

On Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, people go to church for the Easter service.

Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday is the day for dying eggs red. The egg, is a symbol of life, while red is the color of life.

Good Friday

On Holy Thursday’s evening, after the reading of the 12 Gospel, the girls start decorating the Bier of Christ (epitaphios) with flowers, so that in the morning of Good Friday it is ready to receive the image of the body of Christ when He is taken down from the Cross.

Saturday before Easter SundayOn Saturday night people go to church, carrying unlit candles. At midnight, the priest announces the Resurrection of Jesus Christ ("Christos anesti") and the people illuminate their candles of the Holy Flame, taken from Christ's nativity cave in Jerusalem. After the late-night resurrection service of the Greek Orthodox Church, resurrection soup 'mageritsa' is served to the people.

Easter SundayOn Easter Sunday, people eat spit-roast lamb. In the early morning, the spits will be turning in the courtyards Christopsomon, a round, flat loaf marked with a cross and decorated with red Easter eggs, is another Greek Easter delicacy that people eat this day.

The Greek words for Happy Easter are “Kalo Pasha”