Today the Greek orthodox celebrated Easter called Holy Pascha. At midnight, Easter Martins and the Divine Liturgy are chanted. Our Lord's Glorious Resurrection services include The Resurrection Service. The church is lit by the candles of the faithful who receive the resurrection light and form a procession outside the church. The congregation hears the good news of Christ's triumph over death from the Gospel. The joyous hymn of Christ's resurrection is triumphantly chanted -"Christos Anesti Ek Nekron" - The Lord has risen from the dead The Pascha Liturgy and the Sermon of St John invite us to take part in the feast of the resurrection and to receive the Holy Communion.On Easter Sunday late morning we gather to celebrate the "Agapee" a Paschal vesper when we embrace and forgive our fellow Christians, sharing with others Christ's gift of new life. Then follows "to glendi" - the feast- during which we cook ovelias (lamb or goat on the skew) and kokoretsi consisting mainly of seasoned lamb or goat offal. Traditional Greek dances are performed all over Greece and we eat and dance and drink to our heart's content.
Χριστός Ανέστη. Χρόνια Πολλά
8 comments:
Thank you for a very interesting and informative blog on your greek easter traditions. Sounds like in greece easter is a blast. Loved the costumes of the dancers and the music.
I used to be very much into dancing which I unfortunately gave up a couple of years ago. I really enjoyed the video and your traditional easter dances which seem to me most expressive. After all dancing is yet another way of communication. Hope you both had a great easter. Take care.
** Hi Katie, yes in Greece, Easter is a great feast and we have so much fun!Can you imagine? My easter egg has remained UNCRACKED so far which means I am the winner , hence the lucky Easter Bunny!!! Filakia xxx
** I've always loved dancing - mostly watching!- but I'm wreckless at it! The dancers in the video asked me to dance with them but I refused. Or else I'd have made a fool of myself!LOL!
hi anastasia and xronia polla from here as well. great video! i can't imagine easter without our folk dances -especially to thrakiotiko - that's my favorite.
This was very interesting! Thank you! I noticed that your Easter is a week later than ours and much more colourful. I like the way you celebrate Easter! Thanks for your visit and have a great week!
Xronia polla Anastasia and Constantinos. And thanks for sharing the video. A few years ago I attended dancing lessons and learned how to dance most of our traditional dances. I have forgotten some of them but not kalamatianos which I danced on easter Sunday. What I like most about our easter is the midnight service on Holy Saturday when all the lights in the church go off and the priest says "Come and get the Holy Light". This easter my son was the first to get the holy light from the priest. And yes! We managed to take it home.
** Hi Christina. Xronia Polla. Although I'm not very much into dancing, I love watching people dancing and I couldn't agree more: greek folk dances are an integral part of our Easter celebrations. There's so much soul in them.
** That's right, Reader Will. Our Easter is usually one week later. For the Greeks Easter is the greatest celebration of the year - much more important than Christmas.
** Many blessings for your son Stefania. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to take the holy light home - I must get that special candle holder next Easter.
Great video! I have just come back from Corfu where I spent Easter. The Corfiots, who have a long tradition in music, sing and dance during the roasting of ovelias. And after they eat and drink they continue dancing - many of them even children are dressed in their traditional costumes.
Post a Comment