Monday, April 20, 2009

Happy Easter part 2

On Easter Saturday, the sombre mood lifted and everyone appeared a lot more cheerful in anticipation of Easter. In the morning we went into town for some last minute shopping. These are some of the unusual window displays we spotted: Easter candles, lanterns and of course lamb.


Candles have an important role in the Saturday night church service, as they are lit just after midnight once the priest has announced that "Christ has risen". The light of the candles is considered blessed and people carry it home, sometimes using paper lanterns.


Before we left for church just after 11 PM, we had already prepared the table and put some meat in the oven. The Holy Week is a period of fasting, which is broken only after the return from the Saturday midnight service.


We had red dyed eggs and decorated ones too.


Here are a couple of photos from the midnight service.


The next day we had more eggs, traditional Easter bread (tsoureki) and Easter biscuits (koulouria) for breakfast. Yummie.


Then we went into town to partake in the dancing and lamb eating.


It was a gloriously sunny day and very hot too. Hotter, in fact, than the average English summer day.


Happy Easter! Xristos Anesti!

11 comments:

Maria Verivaki said...

alithos anesti!

Shionge said...

I have never imagine this to be so elaborate and I've enjoyed this partake too Tinsie ;D

Tinsie said...

Glad you enjoyed it, Shionge. Easter is very special in Orthodox tradition, this is why it is celebrated so much in Greece (and other Orthodox countries, too, I imagine).

Razzer said...

The photos look amazing. Grt capture.
U think of ur blog everytime u see someting clickable, dont u??
lol. Nice. That's dedication.

Tinsie said...

Thank you! And yes, it's true that I do that - life's better when you can share it :-)

Karen said...

I love this post! Thanks so much for sharing, Tinsie. You have probably guessed that Easter is dear to me, and I love to see how you celebrate it. Maybe that trip the Hub owes me should be taken around Easter, so I can see all of this for myself.

Thanks for the calendar reminder, too! My thought was (honestly), "Wednesday already??"

:-)

Mandi said...

I love all those bright happy colours...looks like a real festive time...thanks for sharing...

Tinsie said...

@ Karen: Glad you enjoyed the post. Easter is my favourite religious holiday, I think you can tell by the number of photos in my posts!

@ Mandi: You are very welcome. Thanks for stopping by :-)

Fifi Flowers said...

YUMMMMMMMMM!!! That is MY kind of EASTER... I think I will start a new tradition in our home and gather recipes from you!
ENJOY your weekend!
Fifi

Tinsie said...

Haha you're on :-)

Care said...

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