Orthodox Christians 2023
BALKAN (April 16, 2023) — The Orthodox Christians around the world celebrate Easter the Greek Orthodox Easter is observed by the faithful is so very different and includes different symbols used to commemorate the Resurrection. Orthodox Easter and the Easter of other Christian denominations are also observed on different dates.
Preparations for Easter start 40 days prior
Greeks prepare for Easter forty days prior to the great feast, with fasting, prayer, and the attendance of liturgies through Holy Saturday when the resurrection of Christ is celebrated on Easter Sunday.
On that Sunday, Greeks celebrate with a huge feast that includes drinking, singing, and dancing, a joyful culmination of forty days of devotions.
Preparations for Easter begin at the start of Great Lent. Orthodox Christians fast and pray regularly during the forty days of Lent and Holy Week.
Great Lent officially begins on what Greeks call Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha, and runs for forty consecutive days. Clean Monday is celebrated with Greeks eating seafood, octopus, and dishes containing fish roe.
Great Lent prepares the individual believer to reach for, accept, and attain the calling of his Savior.
Observance of Great Lent includes abstinence from many foods (including all meat and dairy), almsgiving and an intensified period of prayer alone and in church along with self-examination, confession, repentance, and restitution for sins committed during the past year.
Lent for the Christian Orthodox concludes with the Presanctified Liturgy on Friday of the Sixth Week. The next day is called Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday. While Orthodox Macedonians observe several customs that are part of the detailed and symbolic celebration of Jesus resurrection.
They elebrate the holiday Cvetnici, known as Palm Sunday falls one week on Sunday before Easter and is part of the Week of Suffering, or Holy Week, which marks the last seven days of Christ.
The holidays include:
Strashen ponedelnik – Holy Monday
Veliki vtornik – Holy Tuesday
Velika sreda – Holy Wednesday
Veliki chetvrtok – Maundy Thursday
Veliki petok – Good Friday
Velika sabota – Easter Vigil
Voskresenie – Easter Day
Easter egg dying
The part of the Easter holiday that is conventionally celebrated and a children’s favourite is the dying of eggs.
This falls on Holy Thursday. The eldest woman of the household prepares dye and eggs, helped by other women. The first three eggs that are dyed red symbolize the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
These eggs are stored on a shelf and kept for the entire year, as it is believed that this protects the family until the next Easter holiday.
On the morning of Holy Thursday, the parents wake up their children by rubbing their cheeks with the dyed eggs. Macedonians repeat the following words while performing this custom: “crveno-belo, crveno-belo, crveno-belo” several times.
