Pascha

Orthodox Pascha is the principal feast of the Greek Orthodox year. In 2025 it fell on Sunday 20 April, at the close of Holy Week, which had begun with Palm Sunday on 13 April. Holy Week observances include the Bridegroom services of the first nights, the Niptiras (Washing of the Feet) and the twelve Gospels of Holy Thursday, and the Epitaphios processions of Good Friday.

The week culminates in the Anastasi, the Resurrection service held at midnight. At that hour the churches darken, the priest brings the Holy Light to the congregation, the words Christós Anésti (Christ is Risen) pass candle to candle through the congregation and into the squares, and the Lenten fast is lifted. Pascha 2025 fell five weeks after Western Easter, a divergence set by the Orthodox Julian calendar reckoning against the spring equinox and the Jewish Passover.

The feast is observed under the authority of the Church of Greece, the autocephalous Orthodox church seated in Athens, and is marked across the country — in city cathedrals, island chapels and village squares.