Orthodox Easter Celebrated with Light and Food

Most Christians celebrated Easter more than a month ago, but hundreds of millions of others marked their religion's most holy day yesterday. Orthodox Christians follow the Christian tradition developed in the Eastern Roman Empire, what's now Greece, Turkey and the Middle East. About a quarter-billion people around the world count themselves as Orthodox Christians. Here in the New York area, the largest community of Orthodox Christians is made up of people who are Greek or of Greek-descent...

[Service chanting and music]

REPORTER: It's Saturday night, almost midnight, and the pews are packed at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity on Manhattan's East Side. It's standing room only, with men, women and children dressed in their finest, holding long, white candles – unlit -- in anticipation of the service's climax.

For the faithful in both the Eastern and Western Christian traditions, Easter marks the resurrection of Christ. But, there are differences in how it's celebrated and usually *when*.

FATHER ROBERT STEPHANOPOULOS: “We are following the practice of the ancient church."

REPORTER: Father Robert Stephanopoulos, Dean of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity...

STEPHANOPOULOS: "In the first council at Nicea in 325, there was a formula that was agreed to. And it was to be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. In which time, of course, there was the Jewish observance of Passover. So you had all those components."

REPORTER: Easter in the Orthodox Church, Stephanopoulos says, never comes before Passover, because that's how it happens Biblically.

So how did the Christian Church, which was once united, split into camps that today, can't even agree on the date of their most holy day?

It all goes back more than a thousand years, when the Greek East and the Latin West, separated by language, culture, and distance, gradually drifted apart.

The early Christian church consisted of five centers. In the West there was Rome. And in the East there was the new Rome, Constantinople; Antioch, in what's now Syria; Alexandria and Jerusalem. Each had its own Bishop, and the East had always considered them to be equal to one another.

But in the 11th century, Rome declared the bishop of Rome...Pope.

Father Stephanolpoulos says as the East saw it...

STEPHANOPOULOS: "Rome went its own way, developed a universal primacy, considering the Pope to be the bishop of the universal church, who speaks infallibly on matters of faith and morals, which was never accepted in the East."

REPORTER: That, and doctrinal differences, wrought what's known as the Great Schism. Despite their differences, though, Stephanopoulos says the Eastern and Western churches have more in common than they have differences...

STEPHANOPOULOS: "The essentials of the Christian faith, if I could quantify them, I would say 95 percent of them we hold in common. Our differences are, you know, at peak moments, peak points and they do color everything else."

REPORTER: Once the East and West made that formal break in 1054, they evolved separately.

[Service Music]

REPORTER: The midnight Easter service in the Orthodox Church is full of symbolism, perhaps the most dramatic comes as midnight approaches. That's when all the lights in the church are gradually extinguished, the darkness resembling that of a tomb or death. The only light in the church is that of a single oil candle on the altar.

[Sound of hushed church]

REPORTER: At midnight, the priest, or in the Cathedral's case, the Archbishop, lights his Paschal candle with it. The altar gates open, he announces the resurrection and invites congregants to receive the light.

[Archbishop chanting “Come Receive the Light” in Greek]

Slowly, the church becomes aglow in candle-light, getting brighter and brighter, as the light gets passed on from person to person.

GEORGIA GAVARAS: "It's actually fairly amazing."

Parishioner Georgia Gavaras of Manhattan...

GAVARAS: "I've been to small churches, I've been to big churches and it's always amazing to just see the way everyone lights up, I mean not just the candles and the room, but the people too. I mean, it's really spectacular."

REPORTER: Congregants then file outside into the street with their candles. The light rain on this night did not deter most people. And it's here that the congregation joins in with the traditional Easter hymn...

[Congregants singing “Christos Anesti” hymn]

REPORTER: Father Stephanopoulos translates...

SREPHANOPOULOS: "Christ is Risen, from the dead, trampling down death by death and granting life to those in the tombs...which is repeated as a common refrain through by now the rest of the morning, because we're into Sunday morning early. it usually ends at 2:30 or 3 in the morning."

LEO MAVROVITIS: "It's quite moving and I never miss an Easter service.”

REPORTER: Leo Mavrovitis of Manhattan...

MAVROVITIS: "I come for Easter and I go for weddings and funerals, unfortunately.” (laughs)

REPORTER: The service may end at 2:30 or 3 in the morning...but like many a baseball fan who ducks out of a game at the bottom of the 8th inning, many congregants view the lighting of the candles and the singing of the hymn at midnight as their cue to move on to the next stage of their celebration -- the traditional Easter meal.

[Sound of people greeting each other, still outside church]

REPORTER: Most people go home to celebrate, but this is New York, so many people go out.

[Restaurant ambience]

REPORTER: It may be 1 in the morning, but across the East River in Astoria, the city's main Greek neighborhood, Christo's Hellenic Steak House is abuzz with another wave of customers, just out of church. Some still have their church candles lit, on their tables in makeshift holders. They hope to bring the light back to their homes.

RESTAURANT PATRON: "Greeks celebrate, basically, by eating.” RESTAURANT PATRON: "With family and friends...with a lot of love and hapiness. (pause) and a lot of food. (REPORTER: “What kind of food?”) There's mayeritsa, which if I understand from the translation is a traditional tripe soup. Then there's the traditional roast lamb, and the eggs of course. "

REPORTER: One big Easter custom among the Greek Orthodox is the competitive breaking of the Easter eggs, which are hard boiled and dyed only red. Each person picks an egg and they have a one-on-one competition of sorts, where they tap small end to small end...and large end to large end...

RESTAURANT PATRONS: "Christos Anesti" (crack) "Espasa" "I'm the champion over here" "Christos Anesti" “Alithos Anesti” (crack) “and I lost."

REPORTER: The winner, whose egg remains unbroken, is said to expect good luck for the rest of the year.