LOCAL CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

Easter traditions around Europe

For the Western European Christian world, today, 21st April, is Easter Day. For the Eastern European Christian world it will be in a week, 28th Apirl. Why are they celebrated different days? The Easter date is based on a lunisolar calender which means that it depends on the cycle of the moon. Another issue is that the Eastern and the Western Christian Church use different calenders.

Easter is basically the essence of the christian religion. 

Many traditions are connected to the celebration of Easter. One of them is painting Easter eggs. In Greece we dye Easter eggs red, as we associate them to the red blood of Jesus. There is also a story which says that, a woman who was carrying eggs, wouldn't believe that Christ was resurrected. So she said " if what you are telling me is true then let my eggs turn red", and they did!

 

Some women put a leaf for decoration when they dye them and the shape of  the leaf stays on the painted egg. 

 

The holy week before Easter day is called "Big Week". People go to church and listen to the Evangellia (scriptures of the Apostoles) from the priests. The night of Resurrection or Anastasis (Big Saturday), we take an egg with us in church and when the priest says "Christos Anesti", we tap our eggs with each other to find the strongest one. The symbolism is that of defeating death.

 

This is only one of the Greek Easter traditions. Other countries also have the tradition of Easter eggs which are decorated in more elaborate and decorative ways. In Ukraine, Romania and Poland easter eggs are beautifully decorated with geometrical shapes, flowers and many beautiful colours. 

 

It is an art in itself. The Ukrainian easter eggs are called Pysansky. I am sure there are many more interesting traditions associated with easter from all our partner countries Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Serbia, Czeck Rep. and Italy, enough to fill a whole blog and not only a simple daily post.  

Easter in Italy, in Germany, in Poland, in Spain, in Ukraine, in Serbia, in the Czeck Rep., in Greece, in France.

You could find the following recipes and try them: Easter Bread (tsoureki), easter soup (magiritsa), easter cookies (paschalina koulourakia).