Lent

The Patra Carnival, Greece's biggest celebration of the three-week madness leading up to Lent, has started at the western port city with workshops for kids, street parties, tributes to traditional Greek customs and an exhibition of costumes from past events at the Agora Argyri Hall at 15 Aghiou Georgiou Street.

Millions of people worldwide are celebrating the main Christian holiday, Easter Sunday.

This year the Orthodox Christian Church and the Catholic Church are celebrating Easter on the same day. The next time when the two Churches share Easter celebrations will not occur until 2025.

The preparations throughout Lent, which started on Ash Wednesday, will culminate in the Easter Triduum, starting with liturgical celebrations of Maundy Thursday.

While Easter, the celebration of Jesus Christ's resurrection, is the centrepiece of Christianity, the practices surrounding it in different denominations as well as countries around the world differ.

In the Orthodox Christian Church, Great Lent and Holy Week are two separate things. Officially, Great Lent ends on the Friday before Palm Sunday, and Holy Week begins the day after that. Each day during Holy Week has a special meaning, and understanding what each day represents can help making attending all those church services a lot more meaningful!

A festival showcasing aspic dishes traditionally held in Rumenka near Novi Sad has been postponed after a warning issued by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

Revelers celebrate 'Ash Monday' by participating in a colorful 'flour war,' a traditional festivity marking the end of the carnival season and the start of the 40-day Lent period until the Orthodox Easter, in the port town of Galaxidi, on Monday. [Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters]

People shop for fresh fish and seafood at Athens's central Varvakeios Market Friday, in preparation for the Clean Monday holiday, which marks the start of Lent ahead of Greek Orthodox Easter on April 16.

Dry January seems to be the buzzing trend nowadays. Abstaining from alcohol for the whole month of January appeals to many, especially to those who overdid the feasting and boozing during the festive season before New Year's. Dry January, as a term, was registered in 2014 in the United Kingdom by Alcohol Concern, an advocacy group that initiated the first campaign in January 2013.

Holy Saturday is the last day of fasting in Greece as the moment of the Resurrection draws near. This day is full of symbolisms:

Fasting

Life is short, so is February. A few days shorter than other months, February did not even exist once.