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In Greece, Easter – not Christmas – is definitely the most important holy day of the year, the “Feast of Feasts.” The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ plus the arrival of spring when everything is reborn.
Easter is a great opportunity for Greeks to rejoice, eat, drink, socialize and have fun. People visiting during Greek Easter can observe and participate in the unique traditions.
In 2025, Greek Easter will be celebrated on April 20, 2025. The Greek Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian calendar that most other Christian churches use.
In Greece, Easter eggs are not chocolate eggs. They are real chicken eggs that have been hard boiled and dyed red.
On Holy Thursday of Easter week, women traditionally prepare 2 types of Easter sweets – tsoureki and koulourakia. Tsoureki is a traditional sweet bread. Koulourakia are generic crunchy cookies.
Greek Cooking
Do you want to learn about Greek cooking? Here are a couple of Greek cookbooks. Click on the links to see how you can save money on them.
- “It’s All Greek To Me” by Debbie Matenopoulos & Peter Capozzi
- “My Big Fat Greek Cookbook” by Christos Sourligas and Evdokia Antginas
Additional Greek Easter Information
On Good Friday, there is the Epitafios procession. The epitafios is a wooden construction covered with cloth, depicting the body of Jesus. People follow the procession around the neighborhood. It begins and ends at the church. In Athens, you can follow the epitafios procession in Plaka.
The Anastasi (Resurrection) is on Easter Saturday. People gather outside the church and exactly at midnight, the Holy Light arrives and everyone in the crowd lights their candles. It was a solemn event that turns to joy with chiming bells and fireworks.
The people return home to play the cracking of the eggs game. The person who has the last uncracked egg wins and will have good luck for the next year.
The eggs are eaten and then they have the traditional midnight meal, the magiritsa. This is a special soup containing goat or lamb intestines and kidneys, rice, herbs and lemon.
Greek Easter food is tied to feasting on lamb or goat on the spit. This is prepared on Easter Sunday everywhere around Greece. A proper Easter meal will also have salads, potatoes, various pies and the red Easter eggs. Wine, beer and Greek drinks will also be enjoyed. People listen to traditional Greek folk music and dance.
“Happy Easter” is Kalo Pascha!
Traveling to Athens
If you’d like to visit Athens for Greek Easter, I am sure you’d like to save money on your hotel. We tell you how to get discounted rates for Athens hotels here.
We also tell you how to save money on flights this spring here.