This year the Orthodox, Catholic and Armenian Christian churches celebrate Easter, the Day of Christ's Resurrection, on the same day, April 11.

On the holy night of Easter and all over the next forty days, the Orthodox believers greet each other with "Christos voskrese" (Christ has resurrected) and "Vo istina voskrese" (Indeed he has risen).

At midnight on Saturday people go to church with their red-painted eggs and tap each other's ones after the priest proclaims that Easter has come. According to tradition, the first red-painted egg is kept at home next to an icon till the following Easter.

The ritual of tapping the eggs in turns takes place before the Easter lunch. The person who ends up with the last unbroken egg is believed to have a year of good luck.

The Easter breads, called "kozunak", are another important element of the Orthodox Easter tradition. This bread is taken to church on Saturday evening when a special sequence of services takes place.

Easter is in the fundamentals of Christian faith, it gives meaning to the whole cycle of Christ's birth and life on earth.

Accompanied by unprecedented measures of security, t he Catholic Church celebrates Easter on Sunday with the "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing and message delivered in Rome by the Pope, now in the 26th year of his papacy.

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