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Easter sweetbread from Greece: Tsoureki
It tastes as good as it looks cool
The recipe
The story
If you've read my thoughts on Halloween celebrations in the US, then my thoughts on Easter in the US won't come as much of a surprise: What's with all the rabbits, chickens, and "chocolate"? (That is, chocolate-flavored wax, if you're feeling a little more cynical about it.) Unlike Halloween, the "true meaning" of Easter is fairly obvious: It's a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. And it doesn't take a long to think that a holiday with rabbits and eggs in the Spring probably has something to do with a "pagan fertility celebrations", but the historians actually agree about very little here. There is good agreement on the etymology of the English word "Easter" being traced to a Anglo-Saxon / Germanic goddess "Ēostre", but there is little evidence of a relation to fertility here, as Ēostre is more strongly associated with the dawn (thus there probably is a connection between both "Easter" and "Ēostre" and the word "east"). Similarly, the association of eggs with fertility and life do go back into very ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and an association of rabbits with fertility always seems plausible, but there is reasonably little clear evidence of how long these have been important parts of Easter, or why they started being important parts of Easter. But what is reasonably clear is that both the name itself and the traditions of Easter have been influenced by preexisting culture in different regions.
Wikipedia: Easter
Wikipedia: Ēostre
Wiktionary: Easter
Wikipedia: Easter egg
Wikipedia: Easter Bunny
However, I don't have a particularly strong opinion on whether the origin of a certain tradition increases or decreases its value in my own celebrations. Going back to Halloween, I think that a focus on esotericism arguably does detract from the experience of people who would rather use All Souls Day to remember their deceased family, but at the same time learning that the practice of eating ham for Christmas (my family does!) can potentially be traced back to Yule's "sonargǫltr" (alternatively interpreted as the cheif-, sacrificial-, or atoning-boar) seems to actually increase the tradition's significance.
Wikipedia: Sonargǫltr
In the case of Easter, most of the common traditions I've seen in the US seem... lame. While the symbolism that some people see in eggs can be fairly compelling, having children hunt for plastic eggs filled with candy (theoretically hidden by a magic bunny) seems pretty abstract. I'm not trying to say that bunnies aren't cute, that painted eggs can't be pretty, or that chocolate isn't great, but I'm not sold on their significance in Easter.
Wikipedia: Egg Shoeing
So we've come back to the point of intentionally making and choosing traditions that meaningfully improve the significance of the holidays we celebrate. For me, there are both some fairly obvious options for Easter, and I have also found a number of traditions from cultures around the world to be particularly interesting. For the obvious ones, there's no need to look farther than the Bible, but current practices worldwide also agree: Both Passover and Easter clearly are supposed to involve plenty of eating! And in this respect, there are really a lot of options to choose from. A lamb roast is a pretty obvious choice, but of course that will depend on an individual's preferences about eating meat. I don't know of any symbolism related to chocolate, but I'm happy to take any excuse to eat it. And after reading about a large number of Easter traditions and foods, I decided to make tsoureki a regular part of Easter.
So, what is tsoureki? It's a sweetbread from Greece (and its neighbors) that is usually made around Easter and Christmas. There are a variety of flavors that can be used, but the recipe I usually make seems to be a more typically "Easter-flavored" version. I'll admit that for me, a large part of the draw to making tsoureki is its use of some rather unusual (and hard to find!) spices: mahlepi and mastica (and cardamom too, though it's not nearly as unusual as the other two). To the extent that someone wants their Easter pastry to be symbolic, tsoureki is a pretty good candidate: A braided circle with almond slivers on top can represent a crown of thorns, and a red egg can represent sacrifice, death, and rebirth. But if nothing else, this bread looks really cool, and tastes great!
Wikipedia: Tsoureki
As a warning though, this recipe is fairly difficult, and can easily take most of a whole day! And if you want to include the rarer spices, you'll want to plan ahead, because they might not be easy to get!
The recipe again, in case you didn't see it at the top of the page
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This page was last updated 2025-11-01