Millions of Greeks heading home for Orthodox Easter face an unsettled holiday weekend, with scattered rain showers threatening to disrupt Good Friday processions, midnight Resurrection services and the outdoor lamb feasts that define the country's most important religious celebration.
Meteorologists have confirmed unstable conditions across several regions, with prominent forecaster Yiannis Kallianos issuing detailed projections covering the critical evening hours when communities gather for the Epitaphios mourning processions on Good Friday and the candlelit Resurrection ceremony on Holy Saturday night.
Mr. Kallianos said conditions are expected to improve somewhat by Easter Sunday, but warned the holiday will not escape rain entirely.
Showers are forecast to persist mainly across northern Greece and the eastern mainland region of Sterea Ellada, which includes the greater Athens area of Attica — home to roughly half the country's population.
The forecast complicates what is traditionally Greece's largest annual mass movement of people, as urban residents pour out of Athens and Thessaloniki toward ancestral villages and islands for the four-day break.
Ferry routes, mountain roads and rural churches are typically packed to capacity over the Easter weekend.
Good Friday's Epitaphios — a solemn candlelit procession carrying a flower-draped bier through the streets of every town and village in Greece — is among the most visually striking rituals in the Orthodox calendar and particularly vulnerable to rain.
Holy Saturday's midnight service, when congregations spill into church courtyards to receive the Holy Light, faces similar exposure.
Authorities advised travelers to build flexibility into holiday plans and prepare for sudden localized downpours. Easter Sunday falls this year on April 20.