Greek Easter is a surprising tradition for many Western Christians. It's a festive event that takes place at a different time than most churches celebrate Easter, with special traditions and a history that goes back to ancient Rome.
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What Is Greek Easter?
Greek Easter is the date when Greek Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter. It is also known as Orthodox Easter or the longer title Greek Orthodox Easter. Like the Easter date that the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches observe, it changes each year depending on the spring equinox—the moment in the spring when the Sun is directly above the equator. Usually, the spring equinox occurs around March 20 or 21.
In the early church, Christians worshipped Easter on various days (around Passover, later if they were in hiding, etc.). However, the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD decreed a set Easter date: it must be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. So, as solar and lunar movements change each year, Easter’s date changes. Over the centuries, different calendar systems have developed to accommodate those changes.
Due to some differences between different calendar systems and some differences between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic church, this led to two separate Easter dates.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Kwangmoozaa
Why Is Greek Easter on a Different Day?
Greek Easter happens on a different day because it follows the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar.
The Julian Calendar was developed during the reign of Julius Caesar. According to Britannica.com, it was put into effect because the calendar that Romans used at the time didn’t match up with the solar year (it was about three months off). A three-month gap created many problems for scheduling things—if a calendar says the winter solstice is one day and it happens three months later, farmers can’t accurately plan how long they’ll be able to work on that particular day. They’ll also have a hard time knowing when they can harvest and collect winter stocks if their calendar doesn’t accurately show seasonal changes. Armies planning when to stop for winter and when to advance would have similar problems.
To solve the calendar problem, Sosigenes of Alexandria developed a calendar that had 12 months, some with 31 days and others not. His calendar also included a leap year every four years to make up for the fact the Julian calendar treated a year as 365 ¼ days (every four years, February’s extra day helps the calendar jump ahead). The Julian calendar was put into effect in 45 BC, although the following year had to be extra long (446 days) to compensate for the change. The Julian calendar didn’t really take off until 8 AD because various people misunderstood it.
The Julian calendar was a sound system, and in many ways, it is the system we still use today. However, it had a big problem: Sosigenes of Alexandria had overestimated how long a solar year was by about 12 minutes. Twelve minutes doesn’t sound like much, but that means that every century, the Julian calendar fell behind an entire day. Those days accumulated, so by the 1500s, people were back to the problem of the calendar not fitting solar events and seasons.
Pope Gregory XIII adopted a calendar system developed by astronomer Luigi Lilio and instituted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 to solve this problem. This calendar had a slightly different formula for calculating leap years and left out ten days from that year’s calendar. It also calculated Easter on a different day.
While the Gregorian calendar didn’t catch on immediately—it was the 1500s, the Protestant Reformation was in full swing, and most Protestants weren’t fond of making changes recommended by the Pope. By the 1700s, though, most of the world’s countries had switched to the Gregorian calendar (Turkey didn’t accept it until 1927).
However, even though the countries with the most Eastern Orthodox Christians (Greece, Russia, etc.) had accepted the Gregorian calendar, their churches didn’t adopt it for their movable feasts. Milutin Milankovitch tried to solve the problem in 1923, presenting the Ecumenical Congress of Eastern Orthodox Churches with a revised Julian calendar that would line up Easter and other events with the Gregorian calendar. Only some churches accepted it. So, today, many Eastern Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar to determine Easter.
When Is Greek Easter This Year?
This year, Greek Easter will take place on May 5th, 2024. This year, that date puts Greek Easter 5 weeks past the Gregorian calendar’s Easter (March 31st, 2024). Here are the dates when Greek Easter will take place in upcoming years:
- April 20, 2025
- April 12, 2026
- May 2, 2027
- April 16, 2028
- April 8, 2029
- April 28, 2030
Photo Credit: Getty/TETYANA LYAPI
What Happens on Greek Easter?
Since the Greek Orthodox Church celebrates Greek Easter, some unique Greek cultural customs are associated with it. Greek Orthodox Christians may start these customs early in Holy Week, but things begin in earnest on Maundy Thursday.
Maundy Thursday festivities: Maundy Thursday makes the time when Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested, so it starts off the Passion weekend. On this day, Greek Orthodox Christians make or buy tsoureki, a sweet, braided bread that may have orange zest and simple additions (fennel seeds, chopped almonds). Tsoureki has three braids, representing the three members of the Trinity. The bread also has a boiled egg covered in red dye in the middle, or several red eggs pressed into the top. The red dye represents Christ’s blood. People may also make koulourakia, butter base cookies. All these foods are saved for the main event on Sunday.
Good Friday activities: Good Friday is when Jesus was crucified, so it is a day of morning. Greek Orthodox Christians will attend a special evening mass, and if their church has an icon or bier representing Christ (an Epitaphio), they will decorate it. In Greece, the congregants will carry the Epitaphio out of the church on a procession throughout the local town. If the church has an icon of Christ on the cross, they may take down the image, cover it in a cloth and carry that instead.
Holy Saturday activities: Since Holy Saturday is the day Jesus’ body was in the tomb, there are few festivities on this particular day. Greek Orthodox Christians will likely buy Easter candles and do final prep for the Easter Sunday feast. At midnight, congregants go to their church, and the priest declares “Christos Anesti” (Christ has risen) while congregants respond “Alithos Anesti” (He has truly risen). The priest will then light a congregant’s candle, and the flame is passed along to each person’s candle. Since the Lenten fasting is officially over with midnight, some congregants will now return home and eat the food mentioned earlier in a resurrection meal. They will also have savory food, usually something traditional like magiritsa, a soup made with lamb offal. Others will wait until the morning for the big meal.
Easter Sunday activities: Easter Sunday marks Jesus rising from the tomb, the end of all mourning. If they haven’t started already, Greek Orthodox Christians will have the Easter feast they began preparing for on Maundy Thursday. Those who had the resurrection meal earlier have done many of the traditional activities (eating lamb delicacies, tapping each other’s red eggs to see which one cracks) but will still have in an Easter Sunday lunch. In Greece, people will usually go to their grandparents’ home to celebrate this meal. Along with the deserts already mentioned, the main course will be grilled lamb and delicacies like magiritsa or kokoretsi (lamb intestine wrapped around seasoned offal). Lamb is important not just because it’s a popular Greek dish, but because Jesus was the lamb of God. Dancing, music, and drinking seasonal wines will go along with the Easter Sunday feast, which will take most of the day.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/iiievgeniy
Learn more about the meaning and significance behind the Easter holiday and Holy Week celebrations:
What is Lent? and When Does Lent Start?
What is Ash Wednesday? and When is Ash Wednesday?
What is Palm Sunday?
What is Maundy Thursday?
What is Good Friday? and When is Good Friday?
What is Holy Saturday?
What is Easter? and When is Easter Sunday?
Easter Bible Verses
The Resurrection of Jesus
Easter Prayers
