Easter traditions

Easter traditions –
Easter is the main Orthodox holiday, the day of the Resurrection of Christ.
The tradition of painting eggs for Easter
One of the main Easter traditions is colored eggs. They symbolize the Holy Sepulcher, in which eternal life is hidden. The shell is a stone that was rolled to the entrance to the rock where Christ was buried. But under the shell lies new life. The red color in which Easter eggs were traditionally painted indicates the suffering and shed blood of Christ. And at the same time, he conveys the royal dignity of the Savior (in the east, red was considered royal).
The tradition of giving each other colored eggs on the day of the Resurrection of Christ spread thanks to Mary Magdalene.

Mary was the first to whom Christ appeared after his Resurrection and said: “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to my brothers and tell them: I ascend to my Father” (John 20:17). Mary Magdalene brought the Apostles joyful news that she had seen the Lord. This was the first sermon on the Resurrection.

When the Apostles departed from Jerusalem to preach to all parts of the world, Mary Magdalene also left with them. Even before the Apostle Paul, a woman went to Rome, the center of the then civilization. The brave disciple of Christ even appeared to the emperor Tiberius and told about the life, miracles and teachings of Christ, about how He was slandered by the Jews and crucified by the sentence of Pontius Pilate.

The emperor doubted the story of the Miracle. Then Mary Magdalene took a white egg, which she brought to the palace as a gift, and with the words “Christ is Risen!” gave it to Tiberius. Before the eyes of the Roman ruler, the egg turned from white to bright red.

In the library of the monastery of St. Anastasia the Maker, located in the northern part of Greece, not far from the city of Thessaloniki, a handwritten Greek charter of the 10th century has been preserved. It contains a prayer read on Easter day for the consecration of eggs and cheese. The abbot, distributing the consecrated eggs, says to the brethren: “Thus we have received from the holy fathers, who have preserved this custom from the very times of the apostles, for the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene was the first to show the believers an example of this joyful sacrifice.”