Greek Easter
Posted on April 20th, 2008 at 6:39pm
 Most of us know all about Greek Easter, it's meaning and traditions. But we get many questions here about why it falls on different dates than Western Easter. A big question we get is "How is Greek Easter calculated?" This is a good question - the day is governed by three main conditions:
It must be based on the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian one
It must be after the Jewish holiday of Passover
It must be on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, which for this purpose is fixed as March 21st.
Every few years, "Western" (Catholic and Protestant) Easter and Greek Orthodox Easter coincide; these years are indicated by (same) following the date:
2008 - April 27th
2009 - April 19th
2010 - April 4th (same)
2011 - April 24th (same)
2012 - April 15th
2013 - May 5th
2014 - April 20th (same)
2015 - April 12th
2016 - May 1st
2017 - April 16th (same)
2018 - April 8th
2019 - April 28th
2020 - April 19th
2021 - May 2nd
2022 - April 24th
2023 - April 16th
In Greece, the actual Easter festival begins several days before Easter. Preparations begin on Holy Thursday, when the tsoreki, or Easter bread, is baked, and the eggs are dyed red, symbolizing the blood of Christ.
Many Orthodox fast in the days leading up to Easter, restricting themselves from meat, butter, milk and olive oil. Most also go to their priest to make their confessions and partake in the Holy Communion.
On Good Friday, the church's priest or monk takes down the icon of Christ from the cross and wraps it in linen, reenacting the ancient burial rituals. The icon is then placed in a casket surrounded by white lilies, and paraded through the town as worshipers lament the death of Christ.
On Holy Saturday, parishioners attend late night mass, bringing with them unlit candles. As the clock strikes midnight, the priest announces joyously, "Christos anesti" or "Christ Has Risen".
Worshipers light their unlit candles from the church's Holy Flame, which is said to be have taken from Jesus' nativity cave in Jerusalem.
The pre-Easter fast ends with this lighting ceremony, so worshipers quickly return home to enjoy a feast meal. The soot from the burning candles is often used to make the sign of a cross upon a home's threshold. A cross from the Holy Flame candles is thought to protect the home and its inhabitants during the coming year.
Easter Sunday is considered a festive day of rejoicing with friends and family. The traditional meal is roasted lamb-symbolizing Jesus, the Lamb of God-and dyed eggs.
Greeks have an egg cracking tradition, known as tsougrisma, which is somewhat akin to American's wishbone tradition on Thanksgiving. In Greece, friends and neighbors crack their eggs against one another's to see who ends up with the whole egg. The one holding the last whole egg is deemed the lucky one. Making the feast even more jovial is the free flowing Greek wines and ouzo, which often help these meals last well into the night.
Many of these colorful traditions are practiced today not only in Greece, but in America and other countries around the world with growing Greek immigrant communities. Whether new immigrant or third-generation, the Greek community abroad is strong-and nothing brings out that Greek pride more than the Easter celebrations.
We hope this information is helpful and we hope you all have a wonderful Easter! Kali Anastasi!
Sarbel Exclusive
Posted on April 15th, 2008 at 4:29pm
 We've always loved Sarbel as a singer, but he is special to GreekBoston since he was one of the first stars we brought to Boston for a concert show along with Eirini Merkouri and Vanessa Adamopoulou. Sarbel is currently in the studio finishing his new album which will be released in May, and "Exo Trelathi" will be the first single released from the new album. We have some great backstage footage from his video shoot and you can see it here on GreekBoston.com!
See the video »
Picture Galleries
Posted on March 9th, 2008 at 4:29pm
Pretty much all Greeks everywhere that have an internet connection know that GreekBoston takes and posts picture galleries from various Greek events. But did you know we were one of the first websites - Greek or not - to post event galleries on the web? Well, we started posting event pictures back in 1998, and it would be tough to find another communty website that has been doing it this long. Of course nowadays, every website from every corner of the web posts picture galleries from every event imaginable, but we like to take pride in the fact that we were one of the first ever... YAY us!
Another thing many people may not know is that as a community website, we post pics from any kind of Greek event, not just clubs. We actually want to get more involved in posting galleries from various non-club events, such as Greek festivals, religious events, and pictures submitted by any of our viewers. If you have pictures from an event and you want them seen by our thousands of viewers, just contact us by email at info@greekboston.com and we'll tell you how to submit pictures via web, email, or mail.
We feel that our picture galleries serve a pretty good purpose uniting Greeks to their culture and traditions, even though many of the galleries are from clubs. But it's still kind of fun to sneak a peak :) And we're proud to have started a trend that has been followed by many other websites out there. So please enjoy the GreekBoston Picture Galleries and make sure to smile for the cameras when you see us!
Zhto H Ellas!
Posted on March 6th, 2008 at 9:09pm
It's one of our favorite times of year here at GreekBoston because Greek Independence Day is almost here! This year the Federation of Hellenic-American Societies of New England is going to have a great parade event. The parade this year will be held on Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 1pm. It will follow the usual route of Boylston Street to Charles Street with another great celebration immediately following the parade, filled with food, dancing, and live music on the Boston Common.
We hope there is a great turnout this year showing support for our Independence Day, and also for our Hellenic community here in Boston and New England. We'll be filming and taking pictures so make sure you smile for the cameras! Hopefully the GreekBoston group will be marching again this year but we're not sure yet. It was hard to cover the event while marching last year, so if we have enough coverage we'll march, if not, we'll be in the crowd trying to get the best pics and video as always.
Kali Oreksi
Posted on March 1st, 2008 at 6:04pm
We have started an official GreekBoston blog to keep all our viewers up to date with all the great events, features, and news going on in the GreekBoston community!
To start our first blog off, we wanted to let you all know about some new features available to you. Our Food & Wine section will get bigger and better when we bring you video coverage of the wonderful wine dinners hosted by us! The wine dinners are a great place to learn about new restaurants, wines and cuisine, and also the perfect atmosphere to meet and socialize with sophisticated groups of friends - old and new! If you want to enjoy the finer side of the Greek life, stay tuned to the Greek Lifestyle section which we lovingly call Kali Oreksi! |
