A Greek Easter Story Full Of Surprises

Have you ever celebrated Easter in Greece?
If not, Greek Easter is a truly magical experience—bursting with tradition, flavor, and festive vibes that feel completely different from what you might be used to in other countries.

Below, you’ll find a fun little story inspired by real events 😉

The Easter Story in Greek and English

This tale is part of our Easy Greek Podcast Stories, specially created for intermediate learners in Greek.
It comes with everything you need to enjoy and learn at the same time:

1. The Greek podcast (on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & more)
2. A YouTube video with Greek subtitles
3. The full Greek text and vocabulary list
4. Grammar exercises with answer key
5. Plus, loads of cultural insights into Greek Easter traditions!

Click here for the Easy Greek Podcast Story and Companion Notebook

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Below you can read the story in English. 

A Different Easter in Greece

Tor loves Greece, and therefore visits Greece every year, sometimes even two times. He believes Greece is as beautiful as his own country, Norway, but with much more sun. And that, of course, makes it even more attractive. He likes to visit the mainland of Greece, the small villages, the canyons, sometimes goes for rafting. He loves to go for free camping, on a deserted beach or next to a river. Only the feeling of having a dry tent every day is already worth the trip. Swimming in a refreshing river, or sometimes taking a shower under a small waterfall,  are extra reasons why he believes Greece is a paradise.
Of course, the waterfalls and rivers in Norway are more impressive, with much more water, but OK, he realized that you cannot have it all.

Tor usually visits Greece in spring, between March and May and he is always surprised that few Greeks swim in that season. He loves the many wildflowers in spring and loves the fact that there are much less tourists in spring than in summer.

Tor experienced already several times Greek Easter in small Greek villages, because Greek Easter is always in the spring. He is not a religious person at all, and some years ago he hardly knew anything about “Easter”.  Of course, in his country there are also many beautiful Easter traditions, but for his family, Easter was just a normal day. However, as a child he did enjoy the Easter period in Norway, because he did not have to go to school for 2 weeks, he did not have any homework, and he could eat a lot of chocolate. As an adult, he hardly noticed it was Easter, because he just did the same thing as he would do on another Sunday. Also, since most of his friends were atheists, he was never invited to an Easter lunch or dinner either.

The first time Tor experienced Greek Easter in Greece, was as a total surprise. One of those holidays he will never forget.
It was in April 1997, and two weeks before he travelled to Greece, so when he was still in Norway, the banks were closed. “Due to Easter, no transactions will go through for 4 days”, he read on a pop-up note, when he logged in his banking account on the internet.

Now, 2 weeks later,  he arrived in Greece and went to the bank in the airport .  He remembered that in Greece in many places he could only pay with cash money, so he wanted to change some Norwegian crowns into Drachmas.  “We are closed due to Easter. Please use the ATM next to the door”, he read on a note on the door. He did not understand what was going on. Easter was 2 weeks ago!  Did he travel “back in time”?
Fortunately the ATM gave him the drachmas he needed, and after that he took the metro to the centre of Athens.

After he checked in and rested for an hour in his hotel room, he was hungry and went to look for a nice tavern . It must be still too early, he thought, since all taverns were empty, but a nice waiter informed him that their roof garden was open.
Tha ithela “biftekia kai xoriatiki”  he ordered in Greek.  He had learned some Greek words in the airplane with his travel guide. He had memorized the sentence “Tha ithela” since he liked the sound of it. Not only it sounded much nicer that the simple “thelo”, but in general he always preferred to say, “I would like”, rather than “I want”, even in his own language.
I am sorry, the waiter said, but we are now in the “megali evdomada”, and our tavern does not serve meat until Easter Sunday.
You can choose vegetable dishes, or we also have a lot of “nistissima”.

What means “megali evdomada” Tor asked.
The holy week before Easter Sunday, the waiter answered.
But how this is possible? He asked the waiter, Easter was 2 weeks ago.

No Sir, today is Good Friday, and Easter will be on Sunday, he replied. If you are interested, on Sunday we serve katsikaki and arnaki, as well as kokoretsi. And on Monday we will serve “biftekia” again. Take a look at our special dishes of the day, and I will be back in 5 minutes.

Tor quickly took his travel guide and looked for the word “nistisimma”.

He read;
Nistisima means fasting food – food eaten during Lent by those of Orthodox faith. Mostly this involves giving up meat and dairy and instead using vegetables, pulses and grains to create delicious dishes.

Ah Tor thought, that is exactly what my brother was talking about, who was a vegetarian for years but recently became one of the first veganists of Norway. Why he never mentioned Greeks already eat vegan food for centuries, but they just call it “nistisimma”?

He finally ordered gigantes and dolmadakia, and truly enjoyed it.

Would you like to order anything else Sir, the waiter asked?
We have some nistissima “siropiasta” as dessert.

Yes, that would be nice and I would like another glass of water and the bill as well.
By the way, could you tell me why there are no people at all? Is 9pm still too early for dinner in Greece?

No Sir, it is not early at all, but it is Good Friday today, and the procession now takes place. If you go there and look down to the street, you probably will see a lot of people. Many of them will go to eat in a tavern after the procession. All our tables are reserved for 10 pm.

While waiting for his dessert, Tor went to the edge of the roof garden, and looked 3 floors down.
He could not believe his eyes. Hundreds of people were walking with candles, some of them silently singing a song he never had heard before. He ate his desert as quick as possible, paid the bill and rushed downstairs to walk along with the others, till the square.

On the square, he had seen the epitafio, he learned the day after, when describing what he saw to a Greek American on the bus, travelling to Kalamata.

 

The name of the Greek American was  Nick, and after 30 minutes sitting next to each other, they started chatting. Nick had Greek roots, and travelled from the USA to celebrate Greek Easter with his family in Kalamata.
I love Greek Easter, Nick said, but I prefer to celebrate it in Greece, rather than in the USA. My father is Greek, and my mother is Irish. In the USA we usually celebrate the Irish Catholic Easter, and then I come to Greece to experience the Greek Easter. Of course, that is only possible when the Orthodox Easter is on a different date, like this year.
It sounds complicated, Tor said, so are you Catholic or Orthodox?

Well, that is a good question, Nick answered. I do not really know what I am, it was all mixed up in our family. But the truth is, it does not really matter. I enjoy the traditions a lot, and I do not think so much about the religion. Each person needs to do what they feel is best.  In Greece, I love the Easter Atmosphere, the family gatherings, the food, the songs, the dances…

Is this your first Greek Easter? Nick continued. Yes, Tor admitted, and I am really curious to be honest. It looks all very exotic to me.
While laughing, Nick said : Well, why you do not stay with my family till Easter Monday, and experience the real thing?

And so it happened.
Tor insisted to camp with his tent in the garden of Nick’s aunt, and did not want to stay in her bedroom, as she offered. On Saturday evening he was invited to attend the church service at 11.30pm. It would be his first church service in his entire life, but this he kept secret. While holding his white candle Nick had given him, they were chatting with some family members, who were very curious about life and salaries in Norway.  When midnight came, everybody lit their candle.

 

 

What a nice atmosphere it was. People started greeting, hugging and kissing each other, as well as saying some wishes, he could not understand.
When Tor greeted Nick’s aunt, she tried to translate the Greek wish into English and said ; “have a nice erection Tor”.  Tor did not believe his ears,  but fortunately Nick was there and quickly said  “no Aunt-Kaiti, the correct word is “resurrection” in English.

Ah Tor laughed, now it makes sense ! Same to you. Kali Anastasi

Upon returning home with his candle, Tor learned about the Greek Easter egg cracking tradition.
He picked an egg and cracked it against the egg of Nick. And he learned to say:

– “Christ has risen!”
– “Truly, he has risen!”

He could never have imagined himself ever saying something like that, and was happy his parents were not there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day the Easter lunch was prepared in the garden, and they were grilling the lamb and kokoretsi. Tor loved it, he was crazy about meat.
How nice he said, I am so happy I can eat meat today. Fortunately, my brother is not here, because he is a vegetarian.

Oh, but that is not a problem, aunt Kaiti answered. Your brother can easily eat “arnaki” (lamb), since also the sheep are vegetarian!

Needles to mention, Tor will never forget his first Greek Easter!

He enjoyed many after that. He loved it every time, and realized that you do not need to be religious, in order to enjoy and appreciate cultural traditions.

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This story is part of our Easy Greek Podcast Stories, specially created for intermediate learners in Greek.
It comes with everything you need to enjoy and learn at the same time:

1. The Greek podcast (on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & more)
2. A YouTube video with Greek subtitles
3. The full Greek text and vocab list
4. Grammar exercises with answer key
5. Plus, loads of cultural insights into Greek Easter traditions!