Easter in Cyprus, from St Lazarus to the Sunday lamb

If you want to understand Cyprus, go at Easter. Orthodox Easter is the festival you notice most on the island, in the churches, in the streets and above all in the kitchens, and it follows its own calendar, so check the dates before booking anything. Here’s when it falls, what happens each day according to the sources, and where I’d spend it. Religion on the island more generally is covered in religion in Cyprus.

When is Easter in Cyprus in 2027?

Easter Sunday is 2 May 2027. According to the official public holiday list recorded by the European Medicines Agency, Good Friday, 30 April, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, 3 May, are all holidays. In 2026 Easter fell on 12 April, with holidays on the 10th, 12th and 13th. The countdown starts seven weeks earlier with Green Monday, the first day of Lent, which in 2027 is 15 March. Every holiday of the year is in Cyprus public holidays.

St Lazarus, the Saturday before

Larnaca has its own big day on the eve of Palm Sunday. The municipality organises the procession of the relics and icon of St Lazarus, the city’s patron saint, which in 2026 took place on Saturday 4 April, with vespers at 18:30 and the procession leaving the church at 19:30. It follows Athinon Avenue, Europe Square and Zinonos Kitieos, Zinonos Peridi, Ermou and Konstantinou Kalogera streets, with the municipal band playing. The Cyprus Food Virtual Museum adds an old custom recorded by Ohnefalsch-Richter around 1900, shaping dough for St Lazarus into every imaginable form, dolls, birds, crabs, turtles and snakes. The church itself is in the Church of Saint Lazarus.

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Maundy Thursday and Good Friday

Maundy Thursday is baking day. According to E. Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou’s study, published by the Cyprus Food Virtual Museum, households made breads and sesame biscuits, the most typical being round with a cross. Eggs are dyed red that day too, for instance by boiling them for 25 minutes with onion skins, as in the Kornos recipe the museum keeps, and avkotes are made, little salt-cellar-shaped breads with one or two red eggs standing upright in the middle. The church is draped in black and in the evening the Crucifixion is re-enacted with the reading of the twelve gospels.

On Good Friday, in memory of the vinegar offered to Christ on the cross, tradition calls for lentils with vinegar. In the evening the Epitaphios procession sets out. In Larnaca in 2026 it left the Church of Saint Lazarus at 21:00 for Stadiou and Agias Elenis streets, with the municipal choir and band.

Holy Saturday and the flaounes

Holy Saturday belongs to the flaouna, the Easter bake above all others. The night before, the filling is made with grated flaouna cheese, sourdough starter, plenty of eggs, raisins, spearmint, mahleb and mastic. The next day squares of pastry are filled, folded into squares, triangles or rounds, brushed with egg and sesame and baked. People used to carry them to church in the evening and eat them after the Resurrection service. In the Paphos villages they also make paskies, with pieces of fried meat. The island’s other sweets are in Cypriot desserts.

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Sunday, lamb and cracking eggs

On Sunday the meat comes back, above all roast lamb, which for the rest of the year was a rare dish kept for big occasions. And the red eggs are cracked against each other, a basic Easter custom according to the museum. For me, the day is about a long table, outdoors if possible. If your Easter lunch ends up on a charcoal grill, read up on Cypriot souvla first.

Holy Week for British visitors

Because the Orthodox date follows its own calendar, it’s worth checking it against your school term dates rather than assuming it matches Easter at home. In 2027 the Cypriot bank holidays run from Friday 30 April to Monday 3 May, and that Monday is also the UK’s early May bank holiday, which makes for a handy long weekend. Flights and hotels around those days are worth booking early.

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Where I’d spend it

In Larnaca for St Lazarus and the Epitaphios, then the big weekend in an inland village. I’d base myself in Larnaca for the first part, which is also handy for the airport, and book well ahead, because these are holidays for Cypriots too.

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