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Braided bread with red eggs and almonds sits beside roast meat on potatoes, lentil soup, red eggs in a cloth, cookies, and vases of flowers.

Greek Orthodox Easter

Πάσχα

religious📅 Orthodox Easter calculation (usually different from Western)

About Greek Orthodox Easter

Greek Orthodox Easter (Pascha, Πάσχα) is the luminous centerpiece of the Greek liturgical year, observed across Greece, Cyprus, and Greek diaspora communities — often on a date distinct from Western Easter, calculated by the Orthodox Paschalion. After the midnight Anastasi liturgy, families return home by candlelight to break the forty-day Great Lent fast with a steaming bowl of Magiritsa, a lemony avgolemono-finished soup of lamb offal, scallions, and fresh dill — light enough for a fast-weary stomach. The table is layered with Tsoureki, the three-strand braided sweet bread perfumed with mastiha and mahleb and often crowned with a red-dyed egg, alongside platters of Red-dyed eggs cracked in the joyful tsougrisma game to greetings of 'Christos Anesti.' Easter Sunday turns to the spit-roasted Roast lamb (arnaki sti souvla), basted for hours with olive oil, lemon, and oregano, while buttery Koulourakia twists are passed with coffee. Regional touches vary — Cypriot households may add flaounes, while mainland families lean to kokoretsi beside the spit — but the rhythm of fast, flame, and feast is shared.

Signature Dishes

Magiritsa

μαγειρίτσα

Tsoureki

τσουρέκι

Red-dyed eggs

Roast lamb

Koulourakia

Regional Variations

Mainland Greece (Athens, Central Greece)

Whole spit-roasted lamb (arnaki sti souvla) on Easter Sunday is the centerpiece; magiritsa traditionally served after midnight Anastasi liturgy.

Crete

Often features goat (katsiki) alongside or instead of lamb; local kalitsounia cheese pastries and tsikoudia (raki) accompany the feast.

Corfu (Ionian Islands)

Distinct 'Botides' tradition on Holy Saturday morning — large clay pots thrown from balconies; Venetian-influenced Easter customs and sweets.

Northern Greece (Macedonia, Thrace)

Kokoretsi (skewered offal) prominent alongside the spit lamb; tsoureki and koulourakia widely baked at home.

Cyprus

Flaounes (cheese-filled Easter pastries with mahleb and mastic) are the signature Cypriot Easter bake; souvla (large lamb/pork chunks on spit) common alongside lamb.

Aegean Islands (e.g., Chios, Lesvos)

Chios mastiha features heavily in tsoureki; local sweet breads and almond-based pastries vary island by island.

Peloponnese

Strong spit-roasted lamb tradition with oregano-lemon basting; lambropsomo round Easter bread common in villages.

Greek diaspora (USA, Australia, Canada, UK)

Community-centered parish Anastasi liturgies; adapted home spit-roasting or oven-roasted lamb; tsoureki and red eggs widely maintained as identity markers.

Constantinople / Ecumenical Patriarchate (Istanbul)

Patriarchal Anastasi liturgy at the Phanar carries pan-Orthodox symbolic weight; Politiki (Constantinopolitan) tsoureki recipes emphasize mastiha and mahleb.

Observance Practices

  • Great Lent (Megali Sarakosti) — 40-day strict fast abstaining from meat, dairy, eggs, and (on most days) fish and olive oil

  • Clean Monday (Kathara Deftera) picnics with vegan foods, lagana flatbread, taramosalata, and kite-flying

  • Lazarus Saturday — baking of Lazarakia spiced bread figures shaped like a wrapped body

  • Palm Sunday (Kyriaki ton Vaion) — blessing of palms and bay branches; fish permitted that day

  • Holy Thursday — dyeing eggs red (kokkina avga) using onion skins or red dye; baking tsoureki

  • Holy Friday Epitafios procession — bier of Christ carried through parish streets with candles

  • Holy Saturday midnight Anastasi (Resurrection) liturgy — Holy Light passed candle-to-candle, 'Christos Anesti / Alithos Anesti' exchange

  • Carrying the lit Holy Light home and marking a cross with soot on the door lintel for the year

  • Breaking the Lenten fast after midnight liturgy with magiritsa (lamb-offal avgolemono soup), tsoureki, and red eggs

  • Tsougrisma — Easter Sunday red-egg-cracking game among family members for luck

  • Easter Sunday whole spit-roasted lamb (arnaki sti souvla) gathering with extended family, mezedes, retsina, and ouzo

  • Kokoretsi (skewered seasoned offal) grilled alongside the spit lamb

    Greece, especially Northern Greece and Peloponnese

  • Botides — throwing of clay pots from balconies on Holy Saturday morning

    Corfu

  • Baking of flaounes (cheese-filled Easter pastries) on Holy Saturday

    Cyprus

  • Roasting goat (katsiki) instead of or alongside lamb on Easter Sunday

    Crete and parts of mountainous Greece

  • Saturday-of-Souls (Psychosavato) commemorations during pre-Lenten and Lenten Saturdays with koliva

Regions

GreeceCyprusGreek diaspora

Cuisines

Greek

Related Recipes

Greek Lamb Fricassee (Αρνί Φρικασέ) — Braised lamb with lettuce and egg-lemon sauce

signature·Greece, Greek diaspora

Avgolemono Soup (Αυγολέμονο) — Greek Egg and Lemon Chicken Soup

commonly served·Greece, Greek diaspora

Greek Lemon Roasted Potatoes (Πατάτες λεμονάτες) — Crispy Potatoes with Oregano and Lemon

commonly served·Greece, Cyprus, Greek diaspora

Galaktoboureko (Γαλακτομπούρεκο) — Greek Custard-Filled Phyllo with Lemon Syrup

commonly served·Greece, Cyprus, Greek diaspora

Amygdalota (Αμυγδαλωτά) — Chewy Greek Almond Cookies with Orange and Almond

commonly served·Greece, Cyprus

Horta Vrasta (Χόρτα Βραστά) — Greek boiled wild greens with olive oil and lemon

fasting alternative·Greece, Cyprus, Greek diaspora

Fasolada (Φασολάδα) — Greek White Bean Soup with Tomato and Olive Oil

fasting alternative·Greece, Greek diaspora