Easter week in the Greek Orthodox Church is very important, full of rituals and ancient celebrations. We have been fortunate to be here this week as the faithful prepare for Easter Sunday after observing 40 days of fasting without meat. Saturday night at about 11:30 PM we met at the hotel and journeyed to Vrisia for the midnight celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead.
All week on television, numerous old movies and live programs from the churches have been airing. While Christmas is a big celebration, Easter is equally important if not more joyous since spring is in the air and families come together for feasting, music and dancing. We drove to Vrisia with family and other guests from the hotel to a viewpoint above the village to witness the Easter service and fireworks after midnight. Of course we had to drive down the narrow twisting lanes, sharp right turn then up a very steep hill on a road full of ruts, potholes and large rocks, in the dark! At least it was not raining.
We brought with us the red dyed eggs for cracking after midnight. The red dyed eggs represent the tomb of Christ which has to be broken open. Mrs Maritsa prepared the eggs for dyeing by carefully placing a variety of small leaves on top of each egg then wrapping them in thin nylon; when the eggs are colored the outline of the leaves remains. The cracking ritual is for two people to crack their eggs end to end, whichever egg is cracked eliminates the person from the competition, the object is to remain in the game until everyone's eggs are cracked except one person who is declared the winner, yours truly won this contest beating out all the little children. This means I have good luck, which I need driving back down the hill to Vatera in the dark on the rutted steep lane. At midnight the young folk from the village set off fireworks in celebration, actually they started about 30 minutes early before the church bells tolled. It was really a lovely sight, on top of a dark hill with millions of stars overhead, the bells pealing and fireworks exploding in the night sky.
Sunday morning, Yiannis was busy preparing the lamb for roasting on a spit, using charcoal he made from olive branches; the lamb roasts for about three hours, in addition they roast the liver wrapped in other parts of the sheep, and probably do other things I don't want to know. While the lamb is roasting Yiannis organized an Easter egg hunt for all the children, both family and guests at the hotel. He hid about 100 chocolate eggs, playing cards and other chocolate goodies for the kids to find around the property. The winner is the child who finds the most eggs, who is then rewarded with a large chocolate egg, all of the children were winners and walked away with large chocolate eggs in addition to the eggs they found.
When the lamb was done, the family and guests gathered for a communal dinner that included the roast lamb, fish roe salad, green salad, tzatziki sauce, cheese sauce along with stewed lamb and potatoes, cheese made in Mytillini, olives, wine, bread and two desserts. They prepared a special dish of roast vegetables for us since they did not have tofu lamb.
The people who did our laundry in Mytilinni asked us to stop by their house in Vatera, so we left the party with dancing and singing going on at the hotel, drove about one half mile to the house of these friends, and met all of their relatives enjoying a similar feast. Of course we had to stay for dessert and more dancing. Mz Barbara got into the spirit of things and danced up quite a Greek storm, I was not invited to dance, probably because they knew I had watched Zorba The Greek movie, and would probably do something foolish like dancing on the tables.
A nice way to spend Easter with family and friends. These people know how to throw a party!
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