Happy Easter weekend to everyone who uses the western Easter dates, but if you go by the Orthodox Easter, as Greece does, you won’t be celebrating till the weekend of May 5th. If you’ve never been to Greece at Easter, there’s still time to book. We’ve been lucky and been there several times between us, and you’ll find some of those experiences described on our website.
Easter on Symi
You’ll get a flavour of what Greek Easter is like with this account of Easter on Symi. You might want to pack your earplugs. I still remember standing on the roof of our hotel to get a good view of the procession after Saturday’s Midnight Mass, and feeling the building shake as people let off dynamite somewhere. The fireworks in the street were loud and scary enough, but that was nothing compared to the dynamite.
Easter on Rhodes
You’ll get a feeling for what Easter is like for a typical Greek family in this story about Easter on Rhodes. Experiences range from dancing on the beach to moonlit monasteries and blue movies! You’ll have to read it to discover how the movies fitted in.
Easter in Athens
We’ve not yet experienced Easter in Athens, so this is a more general page about what happens there: Easter in Athens.
Three Easters in One Weekend
Just occasionally the dates of the western and the Orthodox Easters coincide, and that produced one crazy weekend for us one year. On Good Friday we were in Malaga in Spain and found out that the Spanish Semana Santa is just as wild as Greek Easter. On Saturday we flew back to the UK so we were there for a bit of Easter too. Then on Sunday we flew out to Kefalonia and enjoyed the tail-end of Easter Sunday and the whole of Easter Monday in Greece. It was mad but magical.
So, if you do happen to be thinking of a visit to Greece, consider that Easter weekend over May 5th. Get there by Thursday and stay till at least Tuesday, to get the most out of it.
Till next time, Kaló Páscha, or Happy Easter!
Mike and Donna