After 40 days of fasting and abstinence (if you are a truly devout Orthodox Christian), the Greeks celebrate the biggest and most important holiday of the year today – Easter Sunday.
The official start of Easter was at 12 midnight, marked by an ornate mass at the local churches. The ceremony is capped off and highlighted by a candle-lighting ceremony, complete with fireworks and gunshots vying for your attention during the “pappas” (priest’s) singing sermon.
We took some video (click the video to watch a bigger version on youtube…), though I was trying to be discreet so angles are a bit bad. It’s more about the audio – listen for the “pop pop pop pop” of gunfire and small cherry bombs exploding all around us!
Through all commotion, the pappas kept singing, as did the nice little old lady (surely, somebody’s yaya) who kindly shared her candle’s flame with Kristy and I.
It looks looks like I get popped at the end of the video, but I was just klutzy and dropped the camera – nobody was harmed (that I know of!).
Time to EAT!
After last night’s noisy kickoff, the party continues for the rest of today: a big, fat, Greek day of eating, drinking, eating, eating, and more eating.
We’ll be barbecuing lamb, chicken, eggplant, and other veggies, and enjoying the company of Stephane and Ata, two of our fellow “out-of-towners” coming over for dinner. I’m sure we’ll have some photos to post later… maybe we’ll even do a “family portrait” – they had also joined us for Christmas dinner, so it’s becoming our own little tradition.
καλο πασχα! “Kalo Paska” = Happy Easter, from Chania, Crete!
We went to Rethymno (3rd largest city on the island, approx. 60km west of Chania) for Carnival.
This is one of the top three festivals held in Greece each year, and Greeks from all over pour into the city for the parade and subsequent debauchery (as only Greeks can do!).
Kristy and I went with our good friends Stephane (from France) and Ismael (from Morocco).
We always get a good laugh at the contrasts between living in Crete and living in NYC. The example on this day was the fact that in this “major city” in the middle of the biggest annual event in Crete, we managed to randomly bump into SEVERAL people we knew but didn’t pre-arrange to meet up. That just doesn’t happen at the St. Patty’s parade in NYC
The small village of Prassas shows off its chestnut produce and offers up hospitality as part of an annual Chestnut Festival, running in the final days of October. Visitors can expect lots of savory treats including roasted chestnuts offered up along with plenty of traditional drink and food.
The party goes late into the night… stick around long enough and you may get to witness another spectacle intertwined deeply with local traditional celebrations: gunshots fired up into the air. (It’s a little disputed “fact” that all Cretans stockpile small, personal armaments of firearms… in case the Germans try to return.)
