Greek Orthodox Easter and its traditions

Wednesday and Thursday before Easter are two very important family bonding days for the Greeks. They are the days when we prepare our eggs and tsourekia for Easter.

The Easter eggs are dyed red as they represent the blood of Christ. The egg symbolizes the empty rock tomb from which Jesus Christ arose after Ηis Crucifixion. The cracking of the egg on Saturday, at midnight, represents life from within coming out. In the past, people would only use vegetable dyes, like beetroots and then they would paint on them or use flowers to decorate them, by leaving their imprint on the eggs.

The tsoureki is a sweetbread which symbolizes the Resurrection of Christ and rebirth in general. As the flour is molded into shape it rises and takes on life thus transforming it into its final shape.It is a time-consuming tradition but everybody participates making it an entertaining event.

Giagia (grandma) will wake up early and start preparing the dough and boiling the eggs. When the little ones wake up they go out to gather little leaves and plants to decorate the eggs and then when the tsoureki dough is ready everybody gets a piece of dough to make their own tsoureki.

However, this year things will be a little different as we are looking after the elderly people, we love, so we cannot visit them. But that will not stop us from keeping our traditions. We can still keep that up and share our experiences via the different social media to keep that sense of bonding together.

Please bare in mind that however good our tsourekia are, giagia's tsourekia are the best as they have the most love and experience in them

Happy Easter!

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