For most who celebrate the holiday, Easter has come and gone. But for the world’s Orthodox Christian community, including the many Orthodox who live locally, the holiday, which they also call Pascha and that celebrates Jesus’ resurrection, is this Sunday.
It is a celebration of life everlasting, and a time to reflect and renew one’s faith.
Because the Orthodox use the older Julian calendar when determining holidays, Pascha/Easter often falls on a different Sunday than that of the Western Christian religions that use the Gregorian calendar.
In the Orthodox church, the one in which I was raised, Pascha/Easter is the most holy of holy days. Christmas and other celebrations take a back seat to the day that celebrates Christ’s rise from the dead and the renewal of faith.
The term Pascha is used by many of the Greek Orthodox faith, because, according to Fr. Michael Harper of the Orthodox Research Institute, the word Easter derives from a pagan spring festival in honor of Eastra or Ostara, a Teutonic goddess. The Greek word Pascha is derived from the Jewish word Pesach, which means Passover.
Besides the name of the holiday, another difference between Eastern and Western Christian religions regarding Easter is the approach to lent. Lent is the 40-day period prior to the holiday.
In some religions, such as Roman Catholicism, church members often give up one item for the 40 days of lent.
In Orthodoxy, members are supposed to fast, giving up meat, poultry, dairy, fish ”“ but not shellfish ”“ wine and olive oil, for the entire period, except Sundays and several other special days when wine and oil are allowed.
Like others who celebrate Easter, the Orthodox dye eggs, many dye only dark red eggs.
One fun tradition that the Orthodox do with their Easter eggs is called “tsourgrisma.” This is a game in which the whole family and Easter guests participate. The goal is to crack the other person’s egg, going around the room until only one egg remains unscathed. There’s no actual prize for being the champion other than bragging rights.
Attending church, especially during holy week, which started last Sunday ”“ which was Orthodox Palm Sunday ”“ is of course a big part of Pascha/Easter tradition.
There are services every day of the week, sometimes more than one.
Saturday night’s midnight service is the most important of the year, when candles are lit, symbolizing the resurrection of Christ.
Often, the entire congregation with the lit candles, walks around the exterior of the church as the priest chants and the choir sings.
And care is taken to make it home with the candle still lit.
In my mother’s day, it was tradition to go home after the Saturday night church service and break the 40-day fast by feasting on the traditional Easter soup, “mayiritsa,” made of lamb organs and entrails, a dish I was fortunately never forced to try.
Today many of the traditions are no longer followed. As with other ethnicities, those of Greek ancestry have assimilated to the greater American culture.
There are small things. In addition to the traditional lamb served on Easter Sunday, ham often accompanies it.
For my parents, and especially my grandparents who emigrated to America from Greece, the church played a central role in their lives, keeping their community together, much as church has played a similar role for other groups of immigrants in the past and present day.
Today, for many in my generation, church plays a lesser role.
We can mourn the loss of the religious meaning, the loss of community or we can celebrate that we have a new larger community and make new traditions.
And whether you celebrated Easter last week, will celebrate it tomorrow, or not at all, the sentiment of renewal, similar to the spring weather that has finally emerged after the long and dreary winter, is one we can all embrace.
— Dina Mendros is a Maine native, having lived in Saco most of her life, and is the associate editor of the Journal Tribune, where she has worked for more than eight years.
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