When is Greek Orthodox Easter?
It’s also Easter this season. Orthodox Easter is the biggest celebration in Greece, marked by a mass exodus from the cities to the countryside. Driven by religious faith and the need to welcome spring, Greeks head to the villages in the lead-up to Easter Sunday, which is celebrated this year in early May. For the Greeks, Easter is all about spending time with family and friends and is traditionally celebrated outdoors with lots of Greek music, plenty of wine and food (lamb is the most common dish of the day)
Nature in Greece
In the northern Greek region of Veria, the arrival of spring is marked by fields of orchards filled with hundreds of pink-flowered peach trees. Every year, a bike ride is organized in the area, drawing hundreds of cyclists, while a photo competition is also held, attracting nearly 500 participants. Nearby in Kozani, Crocus flowers pop out of the ground, forming an impressive purple carpet. Saffron, a spice and food coloring agent, is produced by this flower in what is also referred to as the Gold of the Greek Earth. The flowers are an agricultural product from Kozani and more specifically from Krokos, a village nearby, named after the flower itself. The harvest involves 40 small villages in the area, with one of the most valuable varieties of Saffron known for its scent, colour, and medicinal properties.
Even in the densely populated areas of Athens, spring can be felt. The capital’s streets are lined with the “neratzia,” or bitter orange tree. It has been chosen by city planners for its durability and relatively thin trunk, which is an advantage for the narrow Athenian sidewalks. When in bloom, the aroma from the tree’s flowers reaches nearly everywhere. Another characteristic of the city is the “koutsoupia”, known in English as the “Judas tree”, with its dense purple flowers. Many of these trees can be found on central streets such as Amalias, Ippokratous, Akadimias and Aiolou. Further south in the Peloponnese, surrounding the cities of Corinth, Sparta and Kalamata, and even further down in Crete, the poppy flower dots landscapes. Reaching up to a meter tall, the poppy is a common symbol that has been used to represent everything from peace to death to even sleep. In Greece, the flowers are in their prime time from late spring through to early summer.
Another spectacular site can be seen on the island of Chios, located in the northern Aegean Sea. In the south of the island, countless crimson wild tulips bloom in the plains and meadows in March, in a unique site unknown to many. In Chios, tulips are called "lalades", testifying in a way to their origin, as they come from the Persian word "lale", which means tulip. The name was adopted by locals during the Ottoman rule of the island.