For us, and for every modern Greek, Easter, more than a celebration, is a sensory artwork woven with centuries of history, folklore, and the poetry of seasonal rituals that still live in our collective memory, with many of its customs carefully passed from generation to generation. For this year’s Easter table installation, we let tradition guide us, reimagining its symbols: crimson-dyed eggs, braided beeswax candles, the smoky sweetness of incense, through a contemporary lens. 

The result is a tablescape that feels both ancient and alive, blending heritage elements while speaking to the modern heart.

Our installation became an ode to Easter’s enduring icons: red eggs stacked playfully, their deep hue mirroring the joy of resurrection; slender beeswax tapers, hand-braided as grandmothers once did, casting honeyed light across linen; ceramic-adorned candles in earthy forms in steel holders for a touch of minimalist grace. 

We used garlands from amaranthus made by Altheae, their cascading blooms a reminder of life’s cyclical return. These elements carry memory, the incense that once perfumed village churches now drifts above our table; handmade koulourakia cookies sit alongside modern ceramics, sacred tradition seen through quiet intention.

For inspiration, we turned to Greece’s rich visual language and the symbolic depth of traditional iconography, reinterpreting it as hand-drawn illustrations scattered between plates. 

The effect is a table that feels like a page from a handmade Chronicle of Spring, where history dances with the present. “Tradition isn’t static,” we remind ourselves. “It’s a wellspring. A folk art rooster can inspire a modern ceramic centerpiece; a village bread stamp can become the motif for hand-painted place cards.”

Easter’s true magic lives in its rituals: the resonant crack of egg battles, the food we share in the sunshine with our loved ones, the collective hush of the midnight candlelit procession. 

We translated this sensory legacy into texture with rough-hewn ceramics against sleek candles, linen with deliberately crumpled edges and into scent with incense mingling with citrus blossoms in low arrangements, as well as into sound with beeswax candles that softly hiss as they burn. For our team, this is how tradition is honoured, not through replication, but by engaging it fully, then giving it space to breathe anew.

To design with tradition is to collaborate across time. The amaranthus, once a symbol of immortality in ancient Greece, now trails as a garland over our modern table installation. The red eggs become sculptural art objects. The beeswax, rolled by monks centuries ago, is now braided in contemporary steel holders. The lesson? The past need not feel dusty. With care, it can be provocative, a conversation between generations.

For those crafting their own celebrations, we suggest beginning with one ritual, dyeing eggs, perhaps, or baking bread, and letting it inspire your palette. Mix eras freely! Pair yiayia’s silver tray with a sculptural vase, or put folk art sketches beside minimalist cutlery. Leave room for the unexpected, like using a sketchbook of Easter motifs as a guestbook. After all, Easter in Greece is a season of rebirth. What better way to honour it than by rekindling its symbols with fresh eyes?

This installation is our love letter to the customs that shape us, proof that tradition, when handled with creativity, never grows old. Some things are too sacred to retire. They simply evolve.

Want to weave tradition into your next celebration? Let’s dream up an event that honours the past while feeling entirely yours!