Photo Gallery: Orthodox Christians Around the World Celebrate Easter

Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day after His crucifixion for the sins of all mankind. The event marks the victory over sin and death and the beginning of a new world redeemed by the Savior's suffering.
Sputnik
Orthodox Christians around the world celebrate Easter, the day of Christ's resurrection, on Sunday. Christians call it "the feast of feasts."
Easter is a moveable church holiday because its date is calculated each year according to the lunar-solar calendar. It always falls on the Sunday after the full moon, following the vernal equinox.
The dates of Easter are different for different Christian denominations because Western Christians use the Gregorian calendar and Eastern Christians use the Julian calendar.
Easter services are always held on the night of the feast, from Saturday to Sunday, and last until dawn. On the eve of Easter and on Easter Day itself, believers consecrate Easter delicacies. According to tradition, the symbols of Easter are Easter bread and colored eggs.
The Easter holiday also marks the end of the most important and strict Lent of the year, when Orthodox families gather to break their fast with delicacies.
Check out Sputnik Africa's gallery on how Orthodox Christians around the world celebrate the major religious holiday!
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Macedonian Orthodox Christians light candles from the holy fire that arrived from Jerusalem during an Easter service at the Saint Jovan Bigorski monastery in Mavrovo, some 115km west of the capital Skopje, early on May 5, 2024. The Macedonian Orthodox Church celebrated Easter according to the Julian calendar.

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Ethiopian Orthodox Christian pilgrims hold candles during a ceremony of the "Holy Fire" at the Deir Al-Sultan Monastery on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem's Old City on May 4 2024, on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

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Young men stand in front of a bonfire during Christian Orthodox Easter celebrations in Xylophagou village, southeast of the island of Cyprus, on Saturday, May 4, 2024. Cypriots lit the traditional Easter bonfires, or lambradjia, as it is known in Cyprus, where they burned effigies of Judas Hiscariot, the disciple thought to have betrayed Jesus.

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Ethiopian Orthodox devotees pray during the celebration of Easter at the Bole Medhanialem Church in Addis Ababa on May 5, 2024. Ethiopian Easter, also known as 'Fasika' in Amharic, commemorates the resurrection of Jesus, and it comes after a 55-day period of Lent among faithful Orthodox believers. Orthodox Christians partake in the 55-day religious fasting, abstaining from eating meat and other animal products.

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Orthodox Christians gather with lit candles during the Holy Fire ceremony at the Holy Sepulchre church in Jerusalem's Old City on May 4, 2024, on the eve of Easter Sunday.

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Easter procession at the Ascension Cathedral in Novosibirsk.

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Children of the Armenian community hold chocolate eggs that they received at the end of an Orthodox Easter religious service at the Armenian cathedral in Bucharest, Romania, on Saturday, May 4, 2024.

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Serbian Patriarch Porfirije (C) leads an Orthodox Easter liturgy at the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 5, 2024.

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Believers at the meeting of the Blessed Fire at the Vnukovo-3 airport. The Blessed Fire was delivered by a special flight from Jerusalem to Moscow for the Easter service at Christ the Savior Cathedral.

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Believers light candles after a cake and Easter egg blessing ceremony at the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Saturday, May 4, 2024.

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Georgians celebrate Orthodox Easter in front of the Kashveti Church next to the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi on May 4, 2024.

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Ethiopian Orthodox devotees pray during the celebration of Easter at the Bole Medhanialem Church in Addis Ababa on May 5, 2024. Ethiopian Easter, also known as 'Fasika' in Amharic, commemorates the resurrection of Jesus, and it comes after a 55-day period of Lent among faithful Orthodox believers. Orthodox Christians partake in the 55-day religious fasting, abstaining from eating meat and other animal products.

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Orthodox Christians gather with lit candles during the Holy Fire ceremony at the Holy Sepulchre church in Jerusalem's Old City on May 4, 2024, on the eve of Easter Sunday.

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Greek Orthodox faithful light their car Niles with the "Holy Fire," transferred from the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, at a church in Athens on Saturday, May 4, 2024.

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An Orthodox girl sits next to a family member during an Easter service in the Orthodox church in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Sunday, May 5, 2024.