Did you know that Greek Easter (Pascha) in the Greek culture is bigger than Christmas? It is considered the most sacred religious holiday. Greek Easter is usually celebrated on a different date than the Western Christian Easter. This is because Greek/ Eastern Christians use the Julian calendar, and the Western Christians use the Gregorian calendar. My parents came to America from Greece and passed down many of the Greek traditions to us. One of my favorite Greek Easter tradition is that we dye our Easter eggs red. The reason why we dye the eggs red is that red symbolizes the blood Jesus shed on the cross and the egg symbolizes rebirth. It's also a tradition to dye the eggs on the Thursday before Easter Sunday.

 On Easter Sunday we gather with family and friends for our traditional Easter dinner. But before we can start eating, everyone picks a red egg from the bowl on the table. Each person then holds a red egg, and they tap the egg of the other person’s egg with their egg trying to crack it. The person whose egg did not crack continues to the next person and person who is left with their egg not cracked is said that they will have good luck the rest of the year. The meaning behind the cracking of the eggs is that the egg stands for the tomb of Jesus and the cracking of the egg symbolizes his resurrection. 

– Vasiliki Papakyriakos Dymbrowski

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