# Greek Orthodox Easter Day



## Seana

_Від щирого серця вітаю всіх форумців з світлим святом Пасхи!_
_Смачної Вам паски та веселих свят
_*Христос Воскрес! Воистину Воскрес!*


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## ireney

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΚΑΛΟ ΠΑΣΧΑ


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## Seana

Many thanks *ireaney. *I am Roman Catholic, we had Eastear week ago.
I know there are nice words unfortunately I can't undestand them exactly.
Greetings


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## ireney

Whoops! my mistake Seana

It's 
(h as a STRONG who is who, or ch in achtung
th as in theatre
a as in apple
i as in ink
e as in elephant)

Hristos Anesti ke Kalo Pasha
(Christ has risen/resurrected and Good (as in happy) Easter)

Hristos Anesti is what we wish each other for the next few days. We are supposed to get the answer "Alithos o kirios" (truly our Lord (has risen) ) but usually we just reply back with a "Hristos Anesti"


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## Seana

Many thanks once again.
Maybe you describe your Easter tradition in your family.
In Poland the main things are pisanki (painted egg) which are an essential part of the Polish Easter table, and on Holy Saturday, families take the little baskets replete with these pisanki and many traditional Easter victuals and blessed them at churchs.


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## Seana

And of course the High Mass of Resurrection at Holy Saturday night.


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## ireney

oh boy! we have lots and lots of traditions! For the Orthodox Church you see it's Easter that is the most important celebration (well the Resurrection to be precise) and not Christmass

For Holy Sunday and Easter days there are 
the painted eggs which we smash in a contest of two (one holds one egg, the other tries to smasth it with another), 
we have a special stew called magiritsa eaten after Midnight Satrurday (after the Resurrection, during which loads of fireworks go off, the ships in the harbour or blow their whistles (ahem) ) , 
there's the Holy light (it supposedly comes from Jerusalem and reaches all churches in Greece; the priest says the "Defte lavete fos" and people pass along from one candle to the next the flame of the Holy light) which we have to carry to our homes and make a cross from its smoke over the front door
and on Easter day we have lamp spitted and roasted over an open fire (and other food stuff).

I think this covers the basics for these 2 days


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## natasha2000

Well, it's not only Greek Easter today. Serbs also celebrate it today.

We say:_Hristos voskrese._
And the expected answer is: _Vaistinu voskrese._

The main star are also painted eggs, just like in Greece.
The rest is big lunch, usually roasted lamb or pork, among other tasty things.
_Hristos voskrese_ to all Orthodox Christians who celebrate Easter today


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## Marijka

Христос  Воскрес! 
Ukrainians also celebrate Easter (Великдень) today


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## ireney

To be exact (and I should have mentioned it before) it's the Orthodox Easter in general.

I guess Seana got mixed up because of the absurdity of the Greek Orthodox Church (we celebrate Christmass with the non-Orthodox Christians and Easter with the Orthodox) that has confused many people before


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## Seana

Hi Ireney again

I don't catch it on. Isn't today Пасхa called as Greek Orthodox Easter Day ?
So I am very very sorry for it. But take a look on our wordreference calendar It is noticed today is Greek Orthodox Easter Day and St.George's Day.
I am little confused but any way you know what I have meant. 

Kind regards


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## ireney

It's the Easter (Pascha) for all the Orthodox Churches, including the Greek. I suspect some err.... over entusiastic Greek put the note on the Calendar without mentioning it's Pascha (easter) for all Orthodox and not just the members of the Greek Orthodox Church.

For that misunderstanding, on behalf of whomever made that erroneous statement, I apologise.


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## natasha2000

ireney said:
			
		

> It's the Easter (Pascha) for all the Orthodox Churches, including the Greek. I suspect some err.... over entusiastic Greek put the note on the Calendar without mentioning it's Pascha (easter) for all Orthodox and not just the members of the Greek Orthodox Church.
> 
> For that misunderstanding, on behalf of whomever made that erroneous statement, I apologise.


 
Ireney, I am positively sure that not all Ortodox Churches celebrate Easter today. I think (I am not sure) Bulgarian Orthodox Christians do not celebrate it today but together with catholic believers, i.e. last week...


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## natasha2000

> The Revised Julian calendar was adopted by the Orthodox Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria (the last in 1963), called the New calendarists. It was rejected by the Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia and the Greek Old Calendarists.


 
This is taken from Wikipedia. According to this, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria follow the new calendar, thus, celebrate Easter (and Christmas) together with catholics, that means, LAST WEEK. 
Jerusalem, Serbia, Russia, Georgia... celebrate it according to the old calendar, that means, TODAY. The whole article can be seen here.


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## ireney

natasha Bulgarians celebrate it with the rest of the Orthodox that is today. Greece follows the new calendar and so does Cyprus.

I know for certain that Serbia, Russia, Bulgraria, Greece an Cyprus celebrate Easter together even though Greece and Cyprus celebrate Christmass with the non-Orthodox dogmas/denominations. Since I am Greek I can vouch for us, and I have friends in all the countries I just mentioned and they tell me that we differ in Christmas but not Easter celebration.

This must be because Easter is calculated by some (obscure to me) moon based way that is different for non-Orthodox and Orthodox and is not calendar based so to speak


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## natasha2000

ireney said:
			
		

> natasha Bulgarians celebrate it with the rest of the Orthodox that is today. Greece follows the new calendar and so does Cyprus.
> 
> I know for certain that Serbia, Russia, Bulgraria, Greece an Cyprus celebrate Easter together even though Greece and Cyprus celebrate Christmass with the non-Orthodox dogmas/denominations. Since I am Greek I can vouch for us, and I have friends in all the countries I just mentioned and they tell me that we differ in Christmas but not Easter celebration.
> 
> This must be because Easter is calculated by some (obscure to me) moon based way that is different for non-Orthodox and Orthodox and is not calendar based so to speak


 
Well, then I guess that the calendar thing goes for Christmas then....
As far as the calculations, they are explained in the link I found, but I still do not understand it, it's a bit too complicated for me....


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## Marijka

ireney said:
			
		

> To be exact (and I should have mentioned it before) it's the Orthodox Easter in general.



Also The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church celebrates Easter with Orthodox Church. ( though they are Catholics) 
and I think that some eparchies of Polish Orthodox Church celebrate Christmas with Catholics ( but I don't know how about Easter) 
It is a little bit confusing


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