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| info: China Post |
This year Protestants, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on the same day — April 24 — an unusual event as Orthodox Christians continue to follow the Julian Calendar, which celebrates spring 13 days later than the Gregorian Calendar followed in Western Europe.
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Usually, Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter later in the year, but not this year because on both calendars April 24 is the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of spring.
Visitors to Greece for Easter should be warned that their trip is likely to turn into an endurance test. Masses, which can go on for hours, are celebrated in every church all week. The objective is to relive the last days of Jesus Christ from his arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday until his crucifixion on Good Friday.
The longest mass celebration takes place on Maundy Thursday, when the service goes on for nearly four hours.
During the mass, all lights are extinguished and a cross is carried through the congregation in total silence. A procession through the community follows on Good Friday when the epitaph — a visual representation of the tomb of Jesus — is carried through the streets.
One of the most beautiful processions can be found on the Cycladic island of Syros where approximately half the population is Catholic. The separate processions from the Orthodox and Catholic communities in the island's capital Ermoupolis meet at the harbor where all Christians remember the death of Jesus together.
Easter is probably the busiest time for traffic on Greece's motorways as thousands of people make their way home to spend the holidays with their families.
Fasting also becomes more strict in the days before Easter. Extremely religious people fast for 40 days before Easter but the majority of Greeks restrict their fasting to Holy Week itself.
No meat is eaten on the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday before Easter while Greeks also stop consuming oil on Maundy Thursday. All pleasures are foregone on Good Friday, including sex.
Redemption comes on Saturday at midnight when the priests announce that “Christ is risen, He is truly risen.”
The moment is marked by fireworks and the general atmosphere is akin to New Year celebrations elsewhere. On some islands such as Kalymnos, people set off dynamite, which can be heard through wide areas of the Aegean.
Spit-roasted lamb is washed down with plenty of red wine although other meals are not to every person's taste. One specialty is Kokoretsi, which is made from the lamb's innards and stomach while another is Mageiritsa, a soup consisting of innards and eggs.
Strangers are welcomed heartily as the traditional Greek view is that no-one should be alone on this day.
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