Greek Easter
22 April 2014 | Athens, Greece
A GREEK EASTER
The weather was very cold on Good Friday evening when we wandered around the town. It was too cold to see the beginnings of the Easter traditions outside the church. A crowd had gathered and the bells had been ringing slowly all day. So we missed the re-enactment of the death of Jesus. However I knew that the next day we would be witnessing the Resurrection in Athens with Christos and Christina.
So with Lati safely berthed, we caught the ferry to Athens on Easter Saturday. I hadn’t seen Christina since last year and she looked gorgeous with her flowing curly blonde locks, suede jeans and black boots. I felt like orphan Annie in my layers of leggings, skirt and several tops to keep warm. I was keen to see Christina’s new Art school and studio she is setting up. She has been working hard with Christos converting a motorbike showroom into her new premises. Not only will she be teaching drawing and painting, she has instructors lined up to teach photography and movie making. She will also have a dark room. The space she is creating is beautiful and I’m sure she will do well.
After a leisurely lunch with everything ordered in Greek so each dish that arrived was a surprise and delicious. The Greeks like good quality food using fresh ingredients. Macdonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken failed here. Even the young prefer cooking like Mamma makes it. Good to see. We had to stay awake until midnight to view the Resurrection celebrations outside the church. As we arrived at the church, we watched the locals dressed to the nines bearing candles. Just before midnight a procession of priests and important church men filed out to a podium with candles and lanterns. After quite a lot of singing and chanting the fireworks went off as the church bells rang loudly. The air was festive and thick with the smoke of fireworks. We knew Christina’s mother had been preparing a special traditional meal so we hurried back to their apartments. Christina’s parents live next door to them. Jorge and Marina had lived in Australia for 18 years in the 80-90s so speak quite good English. It was so nice to be enveloped as part of this family as we sat down to eat traditional soup with liver and rice. First we had to crack the dyed red boiled eggs with the person sitting next to us. The soup was delicious and with much merriment and wine we dined in the early hours of the morning.
The Greeks believe in being very hospitable to guests and would be insulted if we had brought any food and wine. I had done up baskets with a boxing kangaroo and koala as presents. Christina and Christos insisted on giving us their bed while they slept on the couch. Driving us around, they wont let us contribute to fuel either. When we try Christos says, “You would do the same for us if we come to Australia.” So we graciously accepted our friends’ hospitality.