Cracking Your Easter Eggs and other Greek Orthodox Easter Traditions and Facts
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Song sung for Greek Orthodox Easter (video version)
In this HubMob hub
- Some differences between Greek Orthodox Easter (Pascha) and American Easter
- The significance of candles (video)
- Tradition of cracking eggs
- Tsoureki - A Greek Easter centerpiece
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Frieda's wondering...
Have you ever played the Easter egg cracking game?
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There is a difference
The first, and most obvious difference you may have noticed about American Easter and Greek Orthodox Easter (Pascha) is that they normally fall on two completely different Sundays. It is a rare happening when the two Easters merge, but it has happened and will again. This year, 2009, Pascha falls on April 19th. In 2010, both easter and western hemespheres will celebrate Easter on April 4th! Yay! In Greece...
Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14th day (the ecclesiastic "full moon") is on or after March 21 (the ecclesiastic "vernal equinox"). --(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter for more information, follow the same link.)
These Easters also bring with them some major differences in the way in which these days are prepared for and celebrated.
While Americans are dying their eggs in pastels and stickers, and await the Easter Bunny for great gifts of stuffed animals and cream filled chocolates, the Greeks have something a little different in mind. They are shooting off fireworks, lighting candles and they are dying pot-fulls of crimson red eggs symbolizing the blood of Christ. Easter egg hunts are replaced by egg-cracking games.
There are great feasts at both tables, however these feasts have their differences too. For example, at a Greek table, you will most likely find a lamb as opposed to a ham. And as for rolls, at an orthodox table, you will find at least one loaf of tsoureki, a sweet, buttery, brioche-like bread.
While the differences of this holiday are plentiful and most interesting, one thing is for certain: the more reasons for celebration, the better, so experience both any way you can!
author's note: This hub by no means covers the vast and complex Greek Orthodox Easter tradition.
More Greek Orthodox Easter Traditions -- candles and eggs
Christos Anesti
Cracking eggs
In Greek culture, eggs are usually dyed on the Thursday before Easter. This particular Thursday is called Red Thursday, or Kokini Pempti. Nothing is done on Good Friday. No one works or cooks. You basically act as though someone in your own family has died. In a sense, someone has, and I think you can guess who that someone might be? Smart egg you are!
For this reason all our eggs are died red. Blood red. Crimson red.Â
The dye is usually bought from a specialty Greek store, if you live here in the states. That is if you want to get the purest, richest red possible.Â
Eggs are lighty oiled to give them that brilliant, luminous shine, and are then set in wait for the great day. Nothing else is done. Nothing fancy. No special decorating as you may see in other Orthodox cultures. Just simple, beautiful, red.Â
So you've got your eggs, it's Easter Sunday, and you're rearin' to go. Here's what you'll need to know:
- It takes two to crack eggs properly.
- First, you and your partner must chose your eggs. you want an egg that seems as though it would hold up to a good beating.
- Hold your egg in your fist as though your fist were an egg cup.
- You will want to chose which side you want facing up first.
- Tops will smash tops and bottoms will smash bottoms.
- All actions are done vertically.
- Next, decide who will try to smash the other's egg first.
- It is very important to attack your partners egg head on, otherwise it is considered cheating.
- If you have succeeded in cracking your partner's without cracking your own, you get the next hit. (If you started tops, bottoms are next).
- If no one's egg has cracked, your partner gets a try.
- The winner is the one with the least damage.
- The top winner is the one who's egg has withstood it all. Unless of course you are really wanting to eat your egg, because you can't crack it on your own unless it's the very last egg left!.
- Remember to have fun.
*Did you know? -- A great way to color your eggs red is by cooking them in red onions?
*Did you also know? --Greek Easter usually falls within the sign of Aries, the sign of fire, the sign of, well, red!
Tisk tisk, their eggs aren't red. In fact I'm not quite sure how "Greek" this family is, but you'll get the point.
tsoureki - Greek Easter Bread
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Tsoureki - Greek Easter Bread
As I mentioned above, tsoureki is a sweet, brioche like bread. Its shape is braided and can be shaped finally either as a loaf or in a circle, or a wreath. Pre-cooked and dyed eggs can be put in plaits of bread if desired, but it is not necessairily the rule. Most times one egg may be centered on a single loaf, but the dye has the tendency to bleed into the bread. Sesame seeds can also be added by sprinkling it over the bread before cooking; they are more commonly used. Tsoureki is a staple at any Greek Easter. It is with tsoureki that the fast is finally broken.
While tsoureki can be made and served any time of year, it is during Easter that it is topped with crimson Easter eggs. It is often given as a traditional gift with a brief note attached to it. For this reason, large batches should be made. Often times, tsoureki is baked with a foil wrapped coin inserted into the dough prior to cooking. Good luck comes to the person who tears off the piece with the coin.
For more information and for some terrific recipes, please click into the links below (don't forget to bookmark this page so you can come back). I've also included some humorous and short videos for your very traditional, cultural, tsoureki viewing pleasure. -- you'll see what I mean. =)
Until next time... Enjoy! ~ Frieda Babbley
tsoureki - Greek Easter Bread - rounded loaf
Tsoureki
- Greek Food Recipes and Reflections
Wonderful blog. This particular post Gives a brief history and information on tsoureki that is not found in most other sites I visited on this subject. Great read. F.B. - Tsoureki - Country Living
"Custom dictates that eggs, dyed a scarlet red, be baked in the braided crown of this Greek Easter bread." - Tsoureki (Greek Easter bread): Recipes: UKTV Food
Find a simple and easy to follow resipe on making tsoureki, here. - F.B. "Celebrate Easter this year with Paul Hollywood's version of a traditional Greek treat - a fragrant loaf decorated with dyed eggs" - kalofagas.ca » Blog Archive » Tsoureki (Greek Easter Bread)
Peter Minakis, a Greek Canadian, has a fabulous showcase of food recipes and food histories. This is a wonderful blog to check out if you're wanting to make authentic tsoureki and other foods from around the world. - F.B. - Authentic Greek Recipes: Tsoureki
"Authentic local and traditional Greek recipes. These regularly updated easy recipes are prepared by local Greek mothers and grandmothers. Enjoy Greek food as it is cooked and eaten by the Greeks!"
phase 1
phase 2 - making tsoureki during power failure
phase 3
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Did you know that Greek Easter and American Easter are usually celebrated on two different days?
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Comments
Hi Frieda! I knew about the different dates for Easter, but had no CRACKING idea about the EGGS!!! Laugh! What fun thing, and the video helps a lot understand how the whole thing works! That supposedly Greek family seem to have plenty of fun with it!
Great Hub, Frieda.
Looking forward to pascha - I love Easter bread, my friend's mum always cooks me a large bowl of roast artichokes and then we have the procession through Sparta. Getting excited already!
Hi Iphigenia. Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed. And yes, it is different than Russian Orthodox. And one of the reasons I mentioned it as Greek Easter is because we separate ourselves from other Eastern Orthodox religions. Once you learn more, you understand why.
Nice joke Elena, that's a good one. I'm going to have to use it. I was really surprised I couldn't find more videos on a lot of this stuff, but I'm pretty pleased with the ones I did find because they are a lot of fun.
Hi Sufidreamer. You are so LUCKY! I have never been to Greece for a Greek Easter. You should really write about it and take photos! I'd love to see that! Glad you enjoyed this hub. Thanks for popping in and commenting.
Frieda, the egg-cracking and sweet bread are rich traditions in my Polish family.Â
Now, listen up, we all know that the egg crackee will win more often than the egg cracker. :) (Everybody's got their systems and strategies...and everybody thinks he's right.) We break the eggs for luck, like we eat herring on New Year's eve.
The bread recipe from Country Living is wonderful. I have made this bread with the whole boiled eggs many times, and it always amazes me that the eggs survive intact. And what a beautiful display it makes! Our Polish Easter bread is babka. It's almost the same recipe (we leave out the anise and lemon, but add white raisins), but baked in a cake pan so that it has a level bottom with short vertical sides, and the top poofs up. It looks like a huge mushroom with a very fat stem.
Thumbs up for this happy, happy Hub. Loved the videos. That non-red egg cracking get-together looks just like what happens at my family's Easter gathering. Kids, older folks, people in the middle, male / female challenges...everybody competes with joy. And everybody gets good luck.
Oh wow, Sally, thanks for commenting with really cool info! I had no idea polish tradition was so similar in regards to the eggs and bread. It's orthodox too, though, isn't it? Do you all put a coin in your bread too? I always expect something horrible to happen to the egg placed in the bread while cooking. Eggs have very interesting properties. Truth be told, a lot of Greek Americans, and I suppose probably Greeks in other countries too, don't dye only red eggs. My mother was very adamant about their being red. I thought the Country Living recipe was a good one too so I'm glad you agree.
No coins, Frieda. God forbid somebody should fracture a denture.
About "orthodox", you raise an interesting question, and maybe you will write a Hub on the meaning of that word.
I loved how you illuminated the meaning of red eggs. That's not a part of our Posish tradition, but I loved hearing about it. If only I could join Sufidreamer in Sparta!
Happy Easter.
Oh that's so funny Sally. Dentures. I'm sure that's happened on more than one occation. Though I think that since it's hoped for, those with or without dentures probably feel around for it before chewing.
You know, I was going to go into that a bit and stopped myself just in time. It's such a lengthy subject. Thanks for the topic idea though. I'll think about a good way to present it.
I sooo am wishing I could be there too.  What a lucky person Sufidreamer is.  Darn it.Â
So much great information. I'm Jewish, but I do love coloring them Easter eggs!!
Thanks RK. Coloring eggs is loads of fun, no matter what your religion or non religion, that's for sure. Once you get into the egg cracking game, you start doing it every time you get hold of a boiled egg.
Thanks for an interesting Hub. In England people usually have lamb at Easter (even if they are not religous). There is also a traditional cake for Easter, decorated with 11 little balls of marzipan, to represent the disciples except for Judas.
Oh wow, thanks for the info 2patricias! Thanks for finding interest and sharing some great info with us!
Hi Frieda, So great to see a hub on the difference between Greek Easter and "Regular" Easter. My husband's family introduced me to Greek Easter. Whole lamb cooking on a spit, with the "cheeks" and the "coucarettes" (innards) being prized sections. Also on the menu trays of spanikopita and baked ziti, lots and lots of retsina to wash it down with. And in addition to the egg cracking ritual, they also smash plates (usually after some Greek dancing and several bottles of retsina and shots of Metaxa).
We typically host "regular" Easter at our house. My son, niece and nephews have become big fans of the egg cracking game! We've Westernized it by using traditionally colored eggs instead of red ones.
Wishing you and yours a happy Greak Orthodox Easter on April 19th (and Happy Easter to all on April 12th). MM
Hi Mighty Mom! Very cool! Thanks for sharing. Now you've made me hungry! Can't Easter be now?! I'm dying for tyropita. Thanks for sharing. So do you guys celebrate two Easters or one?
fantastic hub, so much detail!
Thanks LondonGirl. Glad you enjoyed. :)
I read an interesting article on Chinese Tea Eggs. It seems the eggs are cracked and then soaked in a tea mixture, which gives them a really neat mottled appearance. Seems like the perfect way to "mix" cultures and enjoy the best of both worlds.
Very interesting! Wow. I'm going to check that out this year and see what happens. Thanks for the info. I love trying out new things. That would be a great thing to do with the eggs that crack before you get to cracking lol. I really am going to try that. Thanks for reading!
So much great information good hub
Thanks Lgali. Always a pleasure to see you! Glad you stopped in.
Ah, the red eggs. I would love to crack your egg Frieda.
A thank you would suffice, Paper Moon. Thank you right back at you ;) Shall we crack eachothers eggs, then? I'm game. But I warn you, I always win.
I never know there is a difference. Well, another learning for me courtesy of your hub.
Thank you Frieda for your interesting hub. I live in the UK where easter has become a very commercialised affair, with more attention paid to the commercial side than the spiritual side. At this time of year I celebrate Eostre,the vernal equinox, the new season of growth, a celebration of spring, since I have pagan beleifs. For me the egg is a symbol of new beginnings and new life and red, the colour of life and fire so I can see so many parallels in the Easter Celebrations and the Spring Festival which I celebrate. Since I do not eat meat, I do not lay my table with lamb, but I do prepare a bread similar to the one you descibe, in a plaited form with fruit and seeds in it and often topped with chocolate mini eggs to symbolise the dawn of the new season. Its often sweetend and covered in sugar and is a favourite with the children. We have many different foods, but the theme is generally new spring vegetables, sprouts and new leaves which for us symbolise the new growth and the return of the sunshine to the land. The children still like to find eggs we have hidden around the garden, and the chocolate hares we put around for them to find is a symbol of the moon goddess, the first full moon of which we celebrate this festival on. Thank you for sharing.
Thankks JPSO138. Though I'm pretty sure I'm learning a lot more from your hubs. And yours are life or death. It's wonderful to learn new things. So glad you stopped by for a read and enjoyed. =)
Hi Lou. Fascinating! I've noticed many similarities myself. While both Easters are traditional celebrations for our family (any excuse for a party over here, lol) I can't say I follow the religions themselves to a T by any means. We too celebrate the equinox, both, and the solstices are a major one for us, with much meaning, though none with any traditional form, so to speak; so it's always an exciting pleasure to find out how others celebrate and the meanings and enjoyments of other religious celebrations. How similar and exciting the bread is. Since writing this hub I've found that many other countries and religions make a similar form of tsoureki for various occations and to mean different things and to be served for various reasons and occations. Have you written a hub about any of your celebrations? I'd be fascinated. I'll have to check. Thanks for sharing your celebration of Eostre with us!
What a lot of information here; games, food, traditions... and some fantastic videos.
Thanks for such a nice read :) and happy Easter!
Thanks Princessa. Love the new avatar. The water's so blue!
Thanks for comming by for a read. Very glad you enjoyed. Thanks, and happy Easter to you too!
Holy smoke Frieda, I never knew about these activites. Smashing eggs, LMAO. I don't even have to partake in these games, I drop the eggs all time while painting them. I was brought up Russian Orthodox,and yes we paint eggs too.Lovely to look at, a joy to behold,drop them after 2 months, and it is worse than a pig's trough LMAO. Thanks Frieda this was kool.x0x
Hey there BP. Glad you liked. Russian Orthodox and Polish Orthodox Easter eggs are sooooo gorgeous. You do take so much time and care in making them. As you can see, we are much plainer with ours. I came across some beautiful and elegant Russian Orthodox egg photos while I was working on this. I know all about the dropping part, by the way. I'm a natural at dropping and spilling myself, so I know where you're coming from. I always make plenty of extra's cause I know that a certain percentage are just not going to make it! LOL.
Yep, we smash eggs on Easter Sunday and say "Christ is risen" also. We also make sweets made from semolina with dates or nuts inside. They are shaped like, and symbolise, the crown of thorns that Jesus was wearing on the cross as well as the "sponge" that he sucked water from when he thirst. As for which day Easter occurs, well we just celebrate it twice! :)
That is so way cool marcofratelli! The "sponge" huh? How very cool. We're known to put semolina and dates and nuts as well, in the tsoureki. Normally it's plain, semonila comes in second place. And yes, no point in celebrating once what you can celebrate twice. Glad you stopped by. Happy Easters!
It was so great to find out that others crack eggs at Easter. My grandfather shared this with us as children and now his great great grandchrildren cary on the tradition. I never knew about the red eggs. We always dyed them whatever way we wanted. Grandpa always tested his egg by tapping the end of the egg against his teeth to see how solid it sounded. As we cracked the eggs we would say something he taught us which I assumed was Ukranion for Christ is Risen. I'm sure we continue to mispronounce it now, but we've enjoyed the tradition for generations.
Hey there CAC. Thanks for taking the time to comment. What a beautiful memory. I love the egg test! I can picture that. How clever. I bet he never lost! Hmm. I'm going to have to ask my mom if she remembers anyone doing that test. I bet so. Granpa's are a sneaky bunch lol. Thanks for sharing with us.
Another informative article here. I've never known that Cracking eggs but i have the awareness of Greek Easter and American Easter are usually celebrated on two different days. Thanx for sharing
Hi chillingbreeze. Thanks much and you're very welcome. Glad you stopped in for a read. :)
Hi Frieda - Happy Easter for the coming weekend!
Same for you Sufidreamer. Take lots of pictures if you can. Maybe a photo hub for us to enjoy?
This hub is real informative and great content including pictures. Keep it Up.
cool
Thanks tega20002k3. Glad you liked.
And thanks my name! lol See, don't have to be a member to leave a comment. Thanks for taking your time to do so!
This Hub Has Joined the Mob!
Iphigenia says:
8 months ago
I did know the different dates for easter - but had not realised just how different the traditions are - they are much more visceral in their imagery in Russia - and in the west we have perhaps become a bit too commercialised ....
"author's note: This hub by no means covers the vast and complex Greek Orthodox Easter tradition." - nevertheless it was a damn good read - thank you