Informative Essay On Greek Easter

Words: 680
Pages: 3

GREEK EASTER
Hello Class, so for my religion oral, I will be talking to you about Greek Easter. For the Greek Orthodox culture, Greek Easter is the most important and therefore most celebrated feast each year. Greek Easter is celebrated over a number of days and due to being based on the Julian calendar, falls at a different time each year.

Clean Monday
The lead up to Easter begins with Clean Monday, the day marking the beginning of lent. Within the 40 days of lent, Greeks fast, were they are unable to consume any animal products. In doing this, they are giving up something just like Jesus did- to show their thanks.

Palm Sunday
The next significant event is Palm Sunday, where Lent ends and the Holy Week starts. On Palm Sunday, Greeks commemorate Christ’s return to Jerusalem by going to mass and receiving a cross made out of palms .

Holy Week
On Holy week, each
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Usually people are up very early to start cooking their lamb on the spit. Lamb is traditionally a dish that is always cooked on Easter as it symbolises the Jewish Passover and the sacrifice of the lamb. Dyed eggs, Koulourakia and Tsoureki, are some of the few traditional dishes that are served on Easter. After all the meals, a game called tsougrisma is played using the red eggs. In this game, the objective is to crack as many people’s eggs with your egg. Each person picks an egg and finds and opponent. Then the person who says "Chistos Anesti" first, taps the other person’s egg followed by the second person saying, "Alithos Anesti" (Indeed He has risen). When one egg is cracked, the winner uses the same egg to try to crack other people’s eggs. The person who is left standing with the uncracked egg is considered to have good luck during the year. This game symbolises Christ breaking from the Tomb as the hard shell of the egg symbolizes the sealed Tomb of Christ whilst the cracking represents his