Greek Easter Customs #1 - The Easter Candles
As you may have noticed in @trumpman's post from yesterday we are about to celebrate the Orthodox Easter this Sunday. The Holy Week that is just coming to an end is a week of fasting (the Great Lent lasts 7 weeks though, this is the last one), praying and getting ready for the day of the big celebration, the Resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ (gosh! I sound like a door-to-door missionary)
On Holy Saturday night, that is tomorrow, we go to the church where the priest gives us the Holy Light singing "Δεύτε λάβετε φως..." (Here, receive the light...). Each person of the congregation has their own candle which they light from the priest's bigger candle. It is the light that symbolizes the Resurrection of Jesus and then the "Χριστός Ανέστη" (Jesus is resurrected) hymn is sung.
The tradition has it for the godfather or godmother to buy an Easter candle for their godchild. Along with the candle, they usually bring a gift (shoes, clothes or toys). The godchild also gives a gift back, the traditional κουλούρα (kouloura), which is a round τσουρέκι (tsoureki) bun with a red egg in the middle.
Red eggs are painted on Good Thursday, the day of the Crucifixion, with the red color being the symbol of the Divine blood shed for the deliverance of Man. Although modern versions of Easter eggs may be colorful, red is the traditional color.
In this post I'll show you how I made my Easter candles for some friends of mine and tomorrow I'll show you how we make our tsourekia buns.
See? First I get all my tools...
And a little helper to supervise...
Imagination...
Inspiration...
And love for the people getting these candles always guarantee a beautiful final result.
Some fancy wrapping up and our Easter presents are ready!
And this is what my godmother gave me this year
She didn't make it on her own, she bought this one.
And now if you excuse me, I have a service to attend. See you tomorrow!
Thank you so much for your time!
Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!
This is literally the first time i am seeing a flat candle, like wtf dint even know it existed. Mind blown lol!
Hehe! And you can find even weirder candles on the market...
You should turn this I to a business. You are a natural talent 😍😍😍😍😍
Oooh! Do you want to be partners? ^_^
Yes, you put the hard work and I spend your hard earned money ^_^
😡😡😡😡😡😡
I used to teach English to children, this would have been a great craft to do for Easter. The candles would survive, the eggs probably wouldn't.
It is! Combined with cards you can teach them various Easter wishes too.
Thank you for reading! :)
Where are the "kokoretsi"?
I am curios if they are like the Romanian "cozonaci".
Paste fericit!!!!!!
Thank you! Happy Easter too!
The "kokoretsi" is something not many people may find tasty, it is made of the lamb's liver, spleen, kidneys and lungs. Τhese are cut in little pieces, seasoned with salt and pepper, pierced through a spit and then wrapped with bowels and roasted. My parents make it with my grandma every year!
It sounds like the Romanian "drob" and the Scottish "haggis".
Have a nice day!
See you around !
That's interesting, I didn't know other countries have such dishes...
Have a nice day!
I mean Happy Easter! Lol
It's good to be Orthodox in the West these days. I took all those chocolate Easter bunnies for half the price.
Lol! Yes! I bought mini chocolate eggs very cheap too :P
Beautiful tradition with candles. We do not have such a tradition. Than you paint eggs? At us from natural dyes husks from an onions are used.
Thanks! We dye the eggs with onions too or beetroots, some other special red roots or coloring threads or special dye. The alternatives are many :)
Our children will glue stickers for eggs:
and will paint Easter cakes with food markers:
Please take a photos. We will change creative ideas with you. I already took your idea with candles.
My mum already dyed our eggs and I didn't get to take photos, I wasn't at home at the time. But I'll show you how they turned out :)
Christ is risen! We are already break one's fast (eat meat, eat pastries, drink wine)!
Hey! Christ is Risen here too!! We got a food hangover yesterday :P
I sympathize with @trumpman! Does he have a first working day today?
Yes, the poor man...
We're in church. I will write a little later
Kαι του χρόνου με υγεία!!! Πολύ όμορφα είναι!! Καλή Ανάσταση!!!
Ευχαριστώ @evimeria!! Kαλή Ανάσταση να έχουμε! :)
Whoa! I'm jealous! Those Easter candles rock! My godfather never brought me any of those, haven't heard from him in more than 20 years. (he never gave 2 shits about me :P) :) I'll gladly accept one of those beautiful creations of yours some day in the future maybe :P Of course I will pay you in SBD!
If you're jealous with the candles, wait until you see the kokoretsi, my parents just prepared it with my grandmother and it's ready for the oven tomorrow evening ;)
Well, next year I'll organise it better and make some steemit-customed λαμπάδες limited edition :P
Very similar to the Romanian orthodox traditions!
Thanks god somebody is still keeping those traditions alive!
Happy Orthodox Easter this weekend!
Traditions are to be honored!
Happy Orthodox Easter to you too! :D
With this great innovation, Easter seems like a fun thing to celebrate at your place. We don't have much traditions attached to it around here.
It is fun and very busy at the same time. There are so many customs we follow here. I'll post about a few of them later...