The Eastern Orthodox Pascha Tradition 

My favorite holiday is Pascha, or as most people know it, Orthodox Christian Easter, the most important of holidays, the day which represents, liberation, life and rebirth. Pascha is even more important than Christmas in the Orthodox faith, since the birth of Jesus is necessary only to lead up to the Resurrection, the ultimate sacrifice for human kind and love for the world.

The traditions surrounding and leading up to Pascha are important, since it is considered a reoccurring cycle, and not simply a one-day event. Every day of the year leads up to Pascha, since we are called to practice love towards others every day of the week. During Lent, especially throughout Holy Week, is when we really focus and humbly reflect on our own humanity and the miraculous event that is about to occur, so that we can discover and model the empathy that gives birth to compassion, which literally means the “ability to suffer with others.”

One of the most beautiful services in the Orthodox Christian faith is the midnight Resurrection service on Pasha morning. The tradition is to carry candles as the faithful walk in procession around the outside of the church,  spreading light, joy and hope throughout the world. 

The Pascha meal varies in each ethnic household. My husband and I prepare recipes handed down from both my mother and my late mother-in-law, handed down from their mothers and passed down to our children. These delicacies are typically roast leg of lamb, spanikopita (spinach phyllo pie), dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), koulourakia (butter cookies), and tsourekia (sweet bread). In the Greek and Macedonian tradition, we go around the table after the Pascha meal, cracking each other’s red egg, which symbolizes Jesus’s Resurrection and exit from the tomb.

Photo at top: Cracking of the Easter eggs. – Contributed photo.