ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Millions of Orthodox Christians across Eastern and Southern Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, have celebrated Easter, capping weeklong religious celebrations. The most important holiday on the Orthodox religious calendar is essentially an outdoor celebration, with equally intense spiritual and pagan parts and religious services followed by feasts, familial and communal. In countries such as Greece, Easter is also an occasion to flee the big cities for ancestral villages: It was reported that over 575,000 cars, almost all packed with families, left the Athens area. This year, it also had its somber moments, such as the celebrations in Ukraine among the devastation of war. In Greece, it somehow arrives at every parish before midnight Saturday, a miracle in its own right.

Source: Ethiopian News April 17, 2023 14:24 UTC