Greeks prepare to celebrate Easter as COVID wanes

The Greeks are getting ready to celebrate Easter with other Orthodox Christians on Sunday, with most coronavirus restrictions now lifted.

Easter for most is a combination of church and family traditions. Inside Greece’s Orthodox churches, candles are a symbol of faith and simplicity, slender and traditionally made of beeswax, and placed in large candleholders filled with sand.

This Easter include pandemic-themed candles that resemble COVID-19 test kits, vaccination syringes and even red-colored representations of the ball-and-spike shaped virus itself.

About three-quarters of Greeks have completed their initial vaccination requirements and this year’s Easter celebrations will go ahead with the fewest restrictions in place since the start of the pandemic.

That includes mask and vaccination mandates at churches and many other shared indoor areas but stores and markets selling Easter goods are opened.