Grand Greek Gatherings

Blog Post #2

April 13, 2015

By: Mark Curran

The number one holiday in Greece is Greek Easter.  Most Greeks are Greek Orthodox Christian and not Catholic.  In Greek Orthodox tradition Easter is always celebrated after the Jewish Pascha.  While Catholic Easter is not always after the Pascha.  Catholic and Greek Easter end up on the same day around once every three years.  It is Greek Tradition to give up eat for lent, so on Easter when it is over, many people indulge themselves with an abundance of meat.  Lamb of course being the main source of meat.  This lamb is to be roasted on a spit before as the means of cooking it.  Another Greek tradition on Easter is the dying of hard boiled eggs red.  They do this because a game is played where two people have eggs and they hit them against each other causing one to break and the other too hold steady.  While playing each person shouts "Cristos Anesti" meaning Christ is Risen in Greek.   Then the game is repeated with the other side of the egg saying "Alithos Anesti" or truly he has risen.  Another Greek Easter tradition is the making of the Greek Doughnuts Loukoumades.  These are personally one of my favorites when it comes to Greek food.  They are fried doughnuts drizzled with honey and topped with powdered sugar.  A recipe can be found:http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Loukoumades/ .