Last week, many western Christians observed Easter, the celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection three days after being crucified. However, for followers of Orthodox Christianity, Easter is still less than a month away, with this year’s celebration falling on April 27.

The disparity in dates lies in the different calendars followed by each faith. The Orthodox Church and Roman Church split from each other in the Great Schism of 1054, mostly over both Churches disagreement with increasing papal authority.

The Orthodox church is not headed by a pontiff but rather an organization of self-governing churches that believe “no one but Christ himself is the real head of the Church,” according to Orthodoxy in America. The Othodox Eastern Church is headed by His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as many Eastern Catholic churches, follow the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar.

The Western church uses the Gregorian calendar, which was established in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a reformed version of the earlier calendar. The Gregorian calendar is 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which, coupled with differing definitions of a full moon and an equinox, account for the date disparity.

Although the date of Easter is a matter of differing faiths, Orthodox and western Christians share many Easter traditions.

One is the practice of painting Easter eggs, which originated in the 13th century out of an earlier Christian tradition in which eggs were forbidden to be eaten during Holy Week. As a symbol of their faith, Christians marked the Holy Week eggs by dying or painting them.

Eastern Orthodox Christians also observe Lent, a 40-day fasting period excluding Sundays that culminates during the week before Easter, or Holy Week.

Sources: britannica.com, The Religion Newswriters Association, Orthodoxy in America

Limassol Police yesterday announced the launch of a campaign against firecrackers, in a bid to uphold the safety of the public from this dangerous but popular Easter tradition.

“In the past, many people have been injured or mutilated because of firecrackers, so police are taking preventive measures,” said Filippos Papaelias, who was recently promoted to Deputy Limassol Police Chief.

Preventive measures include police visits to schools, local communities and municipalities to inform people, particularly the young, of the risks involved in using firecrackers. Police officers will be touring Limassol schools from today and until schools close for the Easter break to give presentations to students on this issue. The campaign also includes conducting searches at kiosks or other establishments from where people buy firecrackers or the materials to make them.

“Anyone selling such products is dealing dangerous items and harming society as a whole. If traced, these items will be confiscated,” Papaelias said.

Police confirmed they had already received numerous complaints from the public about the noise made by firecrackers, let off outside their homes. Police said they would not hesitate to prosecute anyone found in possession of firecrackers. Regular patrols will also be made outside churches to oversee preparations for ‘lambratzia’, the setting of fires at churchyards for the symbolic burning of Judas at the stake.

“The lambratzia tradition will be maintained, but with caution so that private property or electricity poles are not damaged. If police sees any dangerous lambratzia-related activity, it will be removed. Police are co-operating with church committees, which will inform police if they view any dangerous activity taking place,” Papaelias said.

The “Dream Smugglers” return, filling the old streets of the old Belgian town of Jemappes with huge dolls and cockerels. Despite snow, the Dream Smugglers bring back their world of fantasy as they do every Easter to the Walloon area of Belgium.

  The “Dream Smugglers” return, filling the old streets of the old Belgian town of Jemappes with huge dolls and cockerels.

It was the first “white” Easter in Belgium since 1982. But the spot of snow wasn’t enough to chill the 4-day Jemappes carnival which has carried on every year for more than a century. Musicians, including elementary school children and professionals took part. They were ordinary townsfolk and members of the “Smugglers” theatrical company.

The “Smugglers”, however, have only been around for three years, assaulting the town on Easter Monday with giant dolls, cockerels and puppets.

Yves Coumans, artistic drector of the parade, said > ”It’s about making beautiful things together, meeting people, making people meet people who may not normally meet in daily life or who would not talk to each other in the same way because, all of us, when we finish work, we sit down together, we talk, we drink a cup of coffee, so it’s a very strong social bond, and here, we are in a region which has suffered a lot, which is short on optimism, dynamism and energy and I think a parade like this one injects dynamism into the city.”

The giant articulated cockerel is 5-meters high. It leads the procession as the symbol of Jemappes. Ten parade floats, each with its own theme, rolled through the streets. The parade’s prize entry however is the huge ogre: 12 meters high, 8 meters wide and weighing more than 100 kilos. Children are drawn to have a look at its belly, covered by a road map of the ogre’s many long journeys. The carnival, in the good old Belgian tradition, ended with fireworks.

Easter Island > The authorities on Easter Island have arrested a Finnish tourist who allegedly damaged one of the island’s famous moai stone statues. An island resident said she saw the man taking a piece of an earlobe which he had broken off. If found guilty, the tourist could face up to seven years in jail and a fine of 12,000 euros.

Easter Island is situated in the Pacific and belongs to Chile. There are nearly 900 moai statues on Easter Island, some of them more than 10 metres tall.

The statues were erected by the island’s Polynesian inhabitants hundreds of years ago to honour their ancestors. The Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island, where the moai are situated, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

UPDATE > A Finnish tourist has been arrested for allegedly stealing a piece of an Easter Island statue.

Marko Kulju, 26, faces seven years in a Chilean jail and a $21,000 fine if convicted of stealing pieces of a Moai statue. The 400 statues were carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1000 years ago to honour deceased ancestors. A local woman told police she saw the theft on Sunday at Anakena beach. Police later identified Mr Kulju by tattoos the woman saw on his body.

Mr Kulju tore off an earlobe of a 4m-high statue with his hands, police Chief Cristian Gonzalez said. He said the piece fell to the ground, breaking into 20 to 30cm pieces and Mr Kulju fled with one.

“Fortunately, this type of thing does not happen every day, but it does happen, and it is almost impossible to control because on Easter Island there are sites of great archaeological value everywhere and the park guards cannot prevent all such incidents,” said Easter Island government official Liliana Castro. The statue will be inspected to see if it can be repaired, Ms Castro said.

Moais are protected as national monuments. Some Moais are more than 20m tall but most are about 6m and weigh about 20 tonnes. The statues face the south Pacific about 3700km west of Chile. The Moais were nominated, but not chosen, as one of the new seven wonders of the world, selected in a global poll last year. They were edged out by the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and Rome’s Coliseum.

From the streets of Caracas to a rain-soaked Saint Peter’s Square, Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday amid messages of renewal, peace and hope.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called for “solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good” in Tibet, the Middle East and Africa during his traditional Easter message. Tens of thousands of pilgrims turned out to hear the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, sheltering from the pelting rain under a sea of umbrellas in the flower-bedecked Saint Peter’s Square. 

In Britain, the leader of the world’s Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, warned that “comforts and luxuries” would eventually run out, and that civilisation in its current form would collapse. 

As the faithful marked the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion on Good Friday, worshippers found ways to celebrate this holiest date in the Christian calendar in even the most difficult circumstances.

In Jerusalem, Christian pilgrims from around the world flocked to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem’s Old City where many believe Jesus to have been resurrected after his crucifixion.

In Venezuela, Holy Week celebrations conclude with a political twist each year with the “Burning of Judas,” in which unpopular politicians are hung and burned in effigy. This year Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was torched in the central Caracas neighorhood of San Agustin. Colombia and Venezuela almost went to war in early March, and Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have long had a testy relationship. 

In China, the Tibetan Catholic Church in Cizhong, a Christian enclave on the threshold of the Himalayas, saw its Easter services curbed after anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa caused the region’s deadliest tensions in two decades. As a result, the tiny community of less than 1,000 souls, snuggled amid picturesque mountains in an overwhelmingly Buddhist area, has been affected by the recent unrest where it matters the most for them: religion.

In Australia, Anglican Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, focused on the environment. In Seoul, some 20,000 Christians held a non-denominational Easter service in front of city hall, raising money for victims of an oil spill last December. Throughout Germany, thousands of pacifists took part in some 90 Easter weekend demonstrations that included a bicycle ride demanding German troops pull out of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan itself, Canadian soldiers deployed through NATO received chocolate Easter eggs, although no chaplain was available to hold a mass at their base camp.

In Russia, Catholics, a minority in the mainly Orthodox Christian country, celebrated Easter at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow. The Eastern Orthodox Church, which still uses the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, holds its Easter on April 27. Orthodox Easter in Greece and Cyprus will be celebrated on this date next April.

Christian pilgrims, undeterred by the recent violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip, sang and prayed on Easter Sunday at the church believed to be built on the site where Jesus rose from the dead.

Polish men in feathered fur hats, Indian women in saris and Palestinian clergy in white and gold robes found shelter from Jerusalem’s sweltering heat in the cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City.

The outgoing Roman Catholic leader in the Holy Land, Patriarch Michel Sabbah, criticized both Israelis and Palestinians responsible for the recent bloodshed, including Israeli military operations in Gaza, rocket fire from Palestinian militants and a deadly shooting attack on a Jewish religious seminary.

“Despite this, there are hundreds of thousands in both the Palestinian and Israeli societies who send an outcry: peace, peace,” Sabbah, a Palestinian, said in a sermon. “We need leaders who are ready to offer their lives for the sake of peace, not leaders who issue orders to kill and assassinate and send others to kill or to get killed.” Sabbah, and dozens of clergymen in gold-embroidered capes circled the candlelit rotunda where believers say Jesus was buried and then rose from the dead. Stern-faced ushers led the procession, striking the ground with large silver-topped staffs and forcing back the throngs of pilgrims.

Israeli security had deployed thousands of officers nationwide to secure events connected with Easter and the Jewish festival of Purim. Security was also high because of Israeli concerns of a possible revenge attack for the assassination of a Hezbollah commander last month in Syria. Israel denied involvement, but Hezbollah has blamed the Jewish state and threatened to avenge his death with an attack on Israeli targets.

Protestants, who venerate a spot outside the Old City known as the Garden Tomb as the site of Jesus’ burial, gathered there early Sunday to sing songs accompanied by a rock band. Some raised their hands and swayed to the music.

If you feel like cooking up something eggs-tremely delicious this Easter Sunday (today for non-Orthodox Christians), why not stick to tradition and serve eggs, but do something different with them? Rather than simply hard-boiling, colouring and offering them whole, make them the centerpiece of your celebrative cuisine.

When we think of an egg, in general, most of us picture a chicken’s egg. Bird eggs are a common food and one of the most versatile ingredients used in cooking, and it’s true that the most commonly used are those from chickens. Bird eggs have proved valuable foodstuff since prehistory, in both hunting societies and more recent cultures where birds were domesticated. In ancient Rome, they were preserved using a number of methods, and meals often started with an egg course. In the Middle Ages, eggs were forbidden during Lent because of their richness. Egg scrambled with acidic fruit juices was popular in France in the 17th century and may have been the origin of lemon curd.

Chicken eggs are widely used in many types of dishes, both sweet and savoury. Eggs can be pickled, by boiling them first and immersing them in a mixture of vinegar, salt and spices (including ginger or allspice). They can also be hard-boiled, poached, scrambled, fried and refrigerated. Sometimes they are even eaten raw, though this is not recommended for people who may be especially susceptible to salmonella, such as the elderly or pregnant women. As an ingredient, egg yolks are an important emulsifier in the kitchen. Egg white contains protein but little or no fat, and can be whipped to a light, fluffy consistency. Beaten egg whites are used in desserts such as meringues and mousse. Even ground egg shells are sometimes used as a food additive to deliver calcium. However, the protein of cooked eggs is nearly twice as absorbable as that from raw eggs.

Now let’s talk recipes. Since trendy and delicious Deviled Eggs may not be the most appropriate food for Catholic Easter, instead, why not add an Asian theme to your dishes with starters like Ham and Egg Drop Soup, After Easter Shrimp Toast or Curried Egg Puffs? How about Orange Spice Pickled Eggs or Oven-Style Scotch Eggs for added flair? Perhaps Zesty Vegetable Egg Spread is more your thing? When it comes to entr?es, forget the omelet. Opt for Cajun Quiche instead or Easy Broccoli Custard Bake. How about fun Egg Salad Pizza Cones for the kids? A Fajita Frittata or an Italian Spinach & Egg Roll-Up will most definitely impress your guests, as will the all time classic favourite, Eggs Florentine.

For dessert, try twists on traditional custard recipes. Frosty Blueberry or Meringue-Capped Kiwi Custard will satisfy any sweet tooth, and Lemon Pudding Custard or Strawberry Rhubarb Custard Pie will certainly add that eggs-tra special touch to your festivities!

For recipes above visit > www.aeb.org/