1. Dye the eggs red
Armenians traditionally dye their Easter eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ. In the past this was done with madder root, though now most folks use red onion skins. Not sure how to dye your eggs this year. Follow this simple guide.

2. Bake the choreg
Choreg or chorek is a very popular Easter sweet bread prepared using mahlab, a spice made from the seeds of St. Lucy’s cherry. This bread is especially popular among Armenian diaspora communities. It’s hard to imagine an Easter Sunday without the smell of this delicious bread wafting in the air. To make your own, use this recipe.

3. Make the rice and fish
The traditional foods eaten at an Armenian Easter celebration are fish, rice with raisins and dried lavash bread, and red wine. The rice is said to represent humanity, with the raisins symbolizing Christians specifically on this special holy day. Check out this Easter rice recipe for your celebration. As Easter happens at the start of spring, you can also expect to see lots of edible greens on dinner tables, which are often wrapped in lavash bread along with boiled eggs and eaten as a tasty wrap.

4. Retrieve the holy light from church
The evening before Easter Sunday, a special vigil is held after sunset at Armenian churches, after which parishioners take home burning candles from church. The flame is considered sacred and symbolic of the Holy Fire that is said to miraculously appear every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

5. Celebrate

Easter celebrations are usually family affairs among Armenians, though all are welcome on this occasion. Aside from eating and drinking, the most popular activity on Easter is an egg tapping game, where players select one of the boiled, dyed eggs and tap them against each other. The player with the last egg to not crack is the winner.

Special intel: How to win the Armenian egg tapping game

The egg tapping game can get heated, even among adults, who sometimes have their own strategy to winning the game. Here’s our intel on how to up your chances of winning. It’s not foolproof, as you never really know the inner (or rather, outer) strength of your egg, but it’s a sound strategy based on our experience.

If you’re tapping your opponent, use the pointed end of your egg (the “head”) for as long as you can. The force of your tap will be concentrated in its point, meaning a higher chance of cracking your opponent’s egg. You don’t want to hit too hard, as you’ll risk cracking your own egg instead. A light, quick tap should do the trick. Try to hit the side of your opponent's egg, rather than its end, especially if you’re up against their pointed end. You never really know what the outcome will be when it’s head against head.

If you’re being tapped, never offer the round end of your egg (the “butt”) to be tapped by your opponent unless you have to. Because of its round shape the butt is more easily cracked, especially if hit by the point of your opponent. Point to point is the way to go for more even chances of winning if you’re the first to be tapped.

Another strategy for winning the game for those being tapped is to expose a very small portion of your egg when getting tapped, protecting the sides of your egg with your hand. Basically, don’t hold your egg like the photo above. Instead, hold the egg lower in the grip of your palm so that only the end can be tapped, and not the sides. We should say that some folks consider this cheating. Some also consider hitting the sides of the egg cheating, which we mentioned above. We don’t, within reason, but it’s always good to lay out the ground rules before you start playing, and always remember to have fun.