By Christina Savopoulos
Greek Orthodox Easter memories usually consist of lamb roasting on a spit, washing red dye off your hands, and hoping the egg you’ve chosen won’t crack and you’ll have luck until next Easter.
You might remember hastily tying your hair back to avoid being burned by the Agio Fos (Holy Light) or the chill air of the Holy Saturday morning as you head to church to receive communion.
The Greek Herald spoke with some Australians to hear their experiences spending Easter in Australia or Greece. Having only ever spent Easter in Melbourne, I was curious to learn if there is a different feel to celebrating Easter in Greece.
At 21, Elizabeth Kanterakis spent her 2023 Easter with her family on Crete, Greece. Celebrating Easter in Heraklion, Elizabeth appreciated seeing the procession of a band, the army, red cross, and priests, through the centre of the city. She noted how Easter celebrations are “a lot bigger over there than here.”
Elizabeth particularly loved attending a monastery for Anastasi (holy service on the Saturday night before Easter Sunday). She said, “it was very different to here because I’ve never experienced Easter at a monastery. It was very peaceful there.” Elizabeth hopes to spend another Easter in Greece soon.
After celebrating over 50 Easters in Australia, John Ftohogiannis spent his first Easter in Greece with his cousins. When international travel resumed after Melbourne’s brutal COVID-19 lockdowns, John took the opportunity to travel to Greece.
John and his cousins travelled from Ioannina to Preveza for the Easter weekend. He found it interesting how churches in the villages held Anastasi at different times because often “there’s one priest for three different churches.”
John also witnessed the Preveza tradition of breaking clay pots, where everyone could take home a “souvenir of the little red pot.”
For John, the obvious difference between celebrating Greek Orthodox Easter in Australia and in Preveza was the sense of community.
“It feels more religious in Greece… because everyone is a part of it,” he said.
He explained how in Australia, only the Greek community celebrates Easter at their given time, and “as soon as you leave the church, you go back to normal traffic… whereas there, no matter where you are, it’s all part of it.” He appreciated how “everyone is in that Easter spirit.”
While Elizabeth and John grew up celebrating Greek Orthodox Easter with their families, 29-year-old Italian-Australian Jordan LR married into a Greek family and learnt the traditions of Greek Orthodox Easter at an older age.
“Coming into a Greek family, I quickly noticed the deep emphasis on sharing and staying connected,” Jordan said.
He noticed this connectedness in many ways, “from gathering at church to share faith and traditions to being lovingly urged into a fifth serving of food just to keep the dinner table conversations going.”
Despite not being exposed to Greek culture before, Jordan found himself welcomed into the culture and community and said he felt “a unique warmth and sense of togetherness that I had never experienced before.”
John, Elizabeth, and Jordan’s Easter experiences are from recent years, but I also spoke with Eli Savopoulos who shared fond memories of her Easters celebrated as a child in Kavala, Greece, in the 1950s.
For every Easter she has celebrated in Australia since, she has continued the Easter traditions she learnt from her family as a child.
She detailed her traditions, saying how she would “go to church every night during Holy Week.”
Eli explained the different services she would attend; “on Wednesday we would go to the efkelio, where the priest blessed us with the cross. On Thursday we would go to the Twelve Gospels and on Friday we would go to the Descent from the Cross service, and in the evening, we would go to the epitaph.”
Holy Week would come to a close with Eli and her family receiving communion on Saturday morning and in the evening, they would enjoy a meal together and crack the red eggs.
Eli and her family would make tsourekia each Easter in Kavala and would give all their friends and family a tsoureki as a gift. They were given the recipe from their local baker.
Every Easter they would buy new clothes and shoes to wear to church. Eli remembered the excitement of this and how it meant Easter was coming.
Eli lovingly shared, “we had a great time with our friends and relatives during Easter.”
Warmth and a connection to family and faith tie all these memories together. Greek Orthodox Easter is another chance to celebrate Greek culture and embrace the spirit of the holiday.
