West meets the East

Contemporary Greek culture and traditions are very rich and diverse, reflecting Greece’s location at the crossing point where the West meets the East and the country’s great and turbulent history.

The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, dating from the Paleolithic era and the birth of the great Minoan, Mycenaean and Cycladic civilizations through the Classical Period, the Golden Age, reaching great levels of prosperity that resulted in an unprecedented cultural boom, expressed in architecture, drama, science and philosophy, and nurtured in Athens under a democratic environment, through the sequence of invasions and domination: by the Macedonians, the Romans, the Byzantine Empire and the 400 years of Ottoman rule.

Customs and traditions in Greece are important aspect of the Greek culture, they are, bearers of values and standards of excellence.

Considered as one of the richest in customs and folklore and also the most important holiday on Greek calendar the celebration of Orthodox Easter (Pascha) is unique throughout Greece.  The Greek name Pascha is derived from the Hebrew word Pesach, meaning the festival of Passover. The question of when Easter should be observed was first settled by the First Council of Vithynia in Nicaea in 325 AD, when it was decided that the celebration should take place on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. In Greece, Pascha is also called Lambre , meaning bright or lucent,  because it is a day of joy and it signifies the passage from death to life. Easter customs become a herald of the spirit’s and nature’s rebirth, while Easter celebrations constitute a vivid aspect of the folk culture, rich in meaning and symbolism.

Many of the celebrations have roots to pre-Christian times. The Elysian mysteries in ancient Greece were also a celebration of rebirth after death when in winter everything dies and in spring they're born again.

The week preceding Greek Easter is called the Holy Week and each day of that week relates directly to a particular event that took place during the last days of Christ prior to his crucifixion. Holy week and Easter Sunday offer an unsurpassed opportunity to share in some of the most moving and impressive moments of the Greek orthodox worship and tradition, and an opportunity to participate in these traditions handed down from generation to generation for almost 2000 years now. Something peculiar always happens during Easter time. As soon as Holy week starts, everything falls into place. Scents become even stronger and sweeter, the verses in church are sung louder, and the spirituality of nature is reflected in the deep mystical feeling of our soul.

Greek Easter is unlike any other. The fact is that Easter in Greece is by far the most important celebration Orthodox Christianity, since it is associated with the Resurrection of Christ.