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During this week and throughout the weekend, Easter is being celebrated across Europe. This year, the Greek Orthodox Easter also falls on the same weekend as the Christian Easter. In Cyprus, it is an extremely important religious festival for the Orthodox church.
  
The Greek Orthodox Easter is the greatest holiday in the Orthodox Church. It is fixed according to the moon and it is always celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon of the spring equinox.
 
A brief insight into the Greek Orthodox Easter:
 

Holy Week is dedicated to church-going and to baking, etc. The following traditional dishes are baked for the Easter:-

 
'Flaounes' - a cheese cake found in Cyprus, made of pastry with a cheese, egg and mint filling, formed  into triangular and square shapes.
 
'Koulouria' - baked with milk, spices and a little sugar.
 

'Tyropittes' - loaves with small pieces of cheese added and rolled in sesame seeds.

 
Eggs are dyed traditionally red with a special root called 'rizari' sold in bundles at the market during these days. The eggs are also dyed yellow with the yellow flowers that are found in the fields during April.

 
Church services are carried out in the morning, afternoon and evening during Holy Week.

 
Good Friday begins with taking flowers to church so that the 'Epitafios' Holy Sepulchre can be decorated. The whole structure is completely decorated with flowers which can take up most of the morning.

 
For lunch, the traditional 'Faki Xidati' vinegar and lentil soup is eaten, containing vinegar because it is said that when Christ asked for water on his way to Calgary He was given vinegar instead.

 
From early afternoon people will be going from church to church to pay their last respects to Christ.

 
The streets along which the 'Epitafios' will pass in the solemn procession later that night are decorated with coloured lights.

 
The procession starts after the evening service with the priests preceding, then the Scouts or young men carrying the litter of Christ and then the choir, singing hymns. The whole congregation follows, and children light sparklers on the way. Fireworks are lit from the balconies while the procession moves around its parish boundaries and ends up at the church again.

 
Saturday is a relatively quiet day, there is a sermon towards lunchtime during which the church doors are banged and candleholders shaken when the news is brought that Christ is no longer in His grave.

 
The real sermon of resurrection is around midnight. People go to church with a candle and the sermon is held. When the priest proclaims that "Christ has risen", all candles are lit and everyone greets everyone else with 'Christos Anesti' Christ has risen, to which the other answers 'Alithos anesti' Indeed He has risen. Fireworks are set off in celebration of the occasion.

 
On Sunday morning most people who have not taken Holy Communion during the Holy Week take it now and afterwards they go home and crack the red eggs, eat flaounes and the fast is broken. Children go around cracking and winning coloured eggs, if your egg cracks then you lose it and the child with the unbroken egg gets it. At lunchtime picnics and family gatherings are held and lambs are roasted on the spit and wine flows freely.

 
Easter is an all-village affair apart from being a big holiday. After Mass, the priest stands at the church door with the Cross and everyone leaving kisses the Cross, then shakes and takes the hand of the person in front, forming a large circle in the church symbolising the renewal of friendship with one another.

 
After this, all friends and relatives are invited to each other's homes where they sit down together, eating and drinking until late in the afternoon. After lunch there are various games, dances and jokes and celebrations continue to early the next morning.
 
Guide2Cyprus would like to wish all it's readers a very Happy Easter - Kalo Pascha'!