Καλό Πάσχα / Kaló Páscha, happy Greek Easter!

So, although some Easter eggs arrived into local shops here two days before ‘our’ Easter on 4th April, it’s only now that the full decorations and treats are coming on stream here in Greece. I’m typing this on the Greek Orthodox Good Friday (30th April) and the church bells have been ringing every hour or so all morning. The elders of the village are all dressed in black today and there has been a lot of activity in the streets, with people milling around. Usually there would be a procession in the village, but Easter celebrations have been greatly curtailed this year because of Covid restrictions.

For an explanation as to why the dates of Greek Orthodox Easter differ from what we’d be used to in western Europe, read this post: Why is Easter usually celebrated on a different date in Greece? – Krystal Ship Adventures

Holy Thursday is the day when preparations proper begin for Easter in Greece. Eggs (regular eggs! not chocolate eggs) are hardboiled, dyed red and then decorated – eggs symbolising life, of course, and the red dye symbolising blood. Long cookies called koulourakia are baked, along with a special type of plaited sweet bread, tsoureki. Our neighbour, Maria, brought us a big plate of koulourakia, and also red eggs and a loaf of her freshly baked tsoureki! It tastes delicious – soft and fresh, lightly tasting of cinnamon and decorated with flaked almonds.

The tradition with the dyed eggs is called tsougrisma. On Easter Sunday, each person in the house selects one red egg and a competition is held whereby one person bashes their egg on the top of another’s. The egg that does not break is then in competition with another egg, until a winner is declared! The winner is said to have good luck for the year ahead. The eggs are then eaten with salt and pepper. In the past, people would use red onion skins to dye the eggs, but nowadays food dye is used instead.

Good Friday is a day of mourning for Orthodox Greeks, which is why we have seen locals dressed in black today. Mass is held both in the morning and in the evening. The icon of Jesus is removed from the cross in the church, wrapped in linen and put it in the epitaph, which has been decorated with flowers during the morning. Then, late at night on Good Friday, the epitaph is carried around the church and surrounding streets, followed by a procession of people holding candles. This is called the epitaphios procession.

Lambada is the tradition here of decorating long thin candles for Easter. Olwen and Morgan were invited by Nicki, who runs a clothing and jewelry shop across from our house, to decorate candles with her. They each selected a long, thin, oblong-shaped candle which was handmade in Athens and is scented with sandalwood. They then wove twine from the base about a third of the way up the candle and then Nicki helped them select ribbons, local shells and trinkets to decorate their candles. Traditionally, a godparent gifts a candle to their godchild at Easter and everybody lights their candles from the main candle at the church before the Epitaph procession. Once the procession is over, people attempt to carry their lit candles home to their houses and to mark their front doors with a cross.

Anastasi / Resurrection / Easter Saturday: At midnight on Easter Saturday, church bells ring and fireworks are lit to mark the resurrection of Christ. We saw a pickup truck drive through the village in the afternoon, with what looked like a 5th November ‘guy’ held up by two young men as it drove through the streets! It turned out that this ‘guy’ represents Judas and is lit as part of the bonfire up at the castle in Paleochora, upon the breaking of Easter Sunday.

Traditionally, the first thing people eat once the resurrection has been declared, is a special soup called Magirista. This soup is made from lamb offal, and people have it straight after returning from church, thereby breaking their Lenten fast.

This year, because of Covid restrictions, the resurrection celebrations were moved from midnight on Easter Saturday, to 9pm. At that time, we heard the church bells begin to chime and so we walked up towards the church area. It seemed as though the entire village was out and about. Everyone had their lambada candles, young and old, and many people were dressed up in their finery. People queued to get their candles lit at the church door and, once lit, they carried them carefully down the streets and back home. Singing and chanting was being broadcast from the church by loudspeaker.

At the same time, an enormous bonfire was lit at the castle ruins just up the hill from the church. Fireworks were going off also, but the main attraction was the fierce burning at the castle walls. Some time later, the fire brigade attended to put it out!

Easter Sunday: Bells were chimed at midnight (accompanied by more fireworks) and again at 5am! It is traditional here for the entire family to gather at a large table to eat and drink for the day, as Easter is considered to be the most important feast day of the year. Lamb cooked on a spit is most traditional, but other forms of lamb are also eaten, along with fresh cheese, potatoes, wild greens and salad. We could smell the cooking from mid-morning and saw numerous families gathered together, young and old, in celebration throughout the day.

The tradition of launching fireworks at midnight, to mark the beginning of Easter celebrations, has been taken to astonishing levels by a village on the island of Chios, where tens of thousands of rockets are fired towards two churches – see for yourselves here!

On Easter Sunday morning, our lovely neighbour Eleni dropped in these freshly baked cakes and some more red eggs for us to play tsougrisma. These were eggs from her own chickens that she keeps in the field behind our houses. There’s just no end to the generosity of these people!

And lastly, here we are, on Easter Sunday, partaking in the tradition of tsougrisma: