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Hi, I am Rebecca Reagan and welcome to WatchMojo.com. Greek Easter in Megali Evdomada or Great Week. We realize this is the most important holiday of the year. Great Week refers to the week preceding Orthodox Easter. The date of the Greek Orthodox Easter is said base on a different calendar than the Western World Traditional Gregorian Calendar that is why Orthodox Easter and Christian Easter rarely occurs in the same day. Many people practicing the Orthodox faith, fast for 40 days before Easter. Of these 40 days one week, is a complete fast where no meat, dairy, fish or poultry dishes of prepared or consumed.
Only Thursday marks the beginning of Easter celebrations with the women of the house preparing the traditional sweet buns called Zurichia and coloring eggs red. The eggs are a symbol for the renewal of life and red stands for the blood shade by Christ. The festivities began in earliest on Good Friday when the church its priest or monk removes the icon of Christ from the cross and wraps it in linen. This is meant to signify ancient burial rituals. This shredded Christ is then put in a casket surrounded by white lilies and taken to the town for the residence to amend his death. At late night mass on Holy Saturday, people attending bring with them hamlet candles. At midnight as the priest announces “Christo Anesti” or Christ is risen, worshipers light their candles from the church’s Holy Flame, which is said to have been taken from Jesus’ Nativity cave in Jerusalem. The said burning candle is used to make the sign of the cross in the doorway to protect the house for the coming year.
This ceremony breaks the fast. In Eastern Sunday, it brings friends and families together the feast. Traditionally eating lemon, spit, and the dye red eggs. Before the eggs are eaten however, friends and neighbors crack their eggs against one another. Who ends up with the whole egg at the end is considered the lucky one. These parties often last well into the night with free flowing Greek wine and uso making it a jolly fair.
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