Easter around the world Sejal Sukhadwala While we're happily scoffing chocolate eggs and hot cross buns in the UK at Easter, around the world a wealth of other symbolic dishes are being enjoyed.

In this article

Easter in Greece Easter in Eastern Europe

Easter in Sweden and Norway Easter recipes

Easter is the most important Christian festival in many countries and food is of huge symbolic importance at this time of year. From the fasting during Lent, to sumptuous family feasts on Easter Sunday, there's a wealth of culinary specialities to discover.

Easter is the most important feast of the year for Greeks, who begin their culinary preparations in the last week of Lent, the Holy Week before Easter. This is how a typical week would look in the run-up to Easter:

• Palm Sunday (a week before Easter Sunday) - only fish dishes are allowed on this day.
• Holy Tuesday - on this day, women make sweet, sesame-crusted rolls in the shape of bracelets, called kulurakia.
• Holy Thursday - eggs are hard-boiled and dyed red on this day. The eggs are a symbol of rebirth, fertility and Christ's tomb, and the colour red represents Christ's blood.
• Good Friday - this is the day of mourning so sweet food is forbidden. Instead, an austere soup made with lentils, lettuces, tahini (sesame seed paste) and vinegar is eaten.
• Easter Saturday - after midnight mass the Easter festivities begin. Observant Greeks who have been fasting during Lent will break their fast with the Easter soup, called mageiritsa. This is made with lambs' innards, rice, cos lettuce, wild fennel, spring onions and avgolemono (egg and lemon sauce, which is sometimes turned into a soup).
• Easter Sunday - after a church service at noon, families gather together and roast lamb or goat for their main meal. This will cooked in a number of ways depending on the region. In mainland Greece, for example, lamb will have been marinated in lemon, marjoram and thyme.

Other Greek Easter treats

As well as the roast lamb or goat, the Easter Sunday table could also include a brioche-like Easter torte filled with seasonal cheeses, lamb and cinnamon. A variety of offal dishes, the best-known of which is kokkoresti (spit-roasted lambs' innards wrapped in intestine), may also be served.

Easter breads can include lambropsomo - a sesame-encrusted braided loaf spiced with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and bay leaves - or tsureki, which is a brioche-style braided loaf, flavoured with rosewater, makhlepi (ground wild cherry stones), black cumin seeds and orange and lemon rind. Dyed red eggs are embedded inside the latter of these loaves.

These dishes can all be accompanied by red wine, ouzo and retsina.