Easter Saturday

Easter Saturday or the Great Sabbath, when most Athenians were either on excursions to the provinces or getting ready for a midnight Church mass, the Sikh community in the greater Athens area held its own religious festival, the Vaisakhi.

Aegean Airlines will provide an additional three aircraft to distribute the Holy Fire to different parts of the country once it arrives in Athens from Jerusalem on Easter Saturday, the company said on Thursday.

A total of 11 flights have been chartered solely for the transfer of the Holy Fire.

The Culture Ministry on Wednesday published the opening times for museum and archaeological sites over the Orthodox Easter weekend.

They will open at noon on Good Friday and close at 5 p.m.

On Easter Saturday, they will open at 8 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. but will be closed throughout the day on Eastern Sunday.

There was a marked reduction in the number of people leaving Athens on Good Friday and Easter Saturday this year compared to 2013, according to statistics provided by the traffic police.

A total of 382,859 cars passed the Athens-Corinth highway tolls on the two days, which was 3.1 percent lower than last year.

Author Nikos Dimou announced on Friday he was resigning as a member of To Potami, the centrist party led by journalist Stavros Theodorakis, after causing controversy with his public questioning of the belief that the Holy Fire brought from Jerusalem to Greece on Easter Saturday is the result of a miracle.

Aegean Airlines will provide an additional two aircraft to distribute the Holy Fire to different parts of the country once it arrives in Athens from Jerusalem on Easter Saturday, the firm said yesterday.

 Politicians round on To Potami backer Nikos Dimou for comment on Easter tradition

Writer Nikos Dimou came in for criticism Wednesday for suggesting that the Holy Fire brought back from Jerusalem each Easter Saturday is not the result of a miracle and that Greece should not spend money on a jet to bring it to Athens.