Sara Alexi's Blog - Posts Tagged "easter"

Easter is by far the biggest day of celebration in Greece (and there are many!) and it is full of laughter, with families coming together to observe quirky Greek traditions.

The Easter I remember most clearly is from the early 90s when I took a trip to Corfu with a girl friend. We were young and open to anything. We had little need for sleep and were eager for adventure.

I remember we became friendly with a group of gypsies, and were invited into one of their tents where we drank coffee and played with their children. I got lost in the hills, and watched Albanian refugees being rounded up by the police at the port. Some of the refugees were clearly known to the police, who greeted them by name and shook their hands before sending them off on their way back to Albania, as if it was a daily occurrence (it probably was!).

My abiding memory of this particular Easter was not the lavish feasts, nor the hoards and hoards of people in the streets, but a tradition that is unique to Corfu - the throwing of pottery from the balconies and windows to smash on the streets below. No-one I asked seemed to know where this ritual had come from but as we watched the women of the house threw things they no longer wanted, and seemed to have a general clear out of odd bits of ceramics.

The crowds backed to clear a space and the shards of pottery filled the streets, crunching under foot. I have heard since that it is done to make a noise to frighten away the devil.

All I knew at the time was it was fun to watch as it came with a sense of organised chaos. I still have a shard of pottery, painted bright blue, that I took as a keepsake.

Today of course the tradition has become bigger and I suppose the theory is ‘better’.

The clearing out of old pottery seems to have been replaced with enormous purpose thrown pots as much as five feet tall called ‘botos’. These are held teetering on the balustrades over the street, and the people below, now safely behind police barriers, count down from ten to one, and break into thunderous applause when these enormous earthenware pots are allowed to fall to the ground.



My other favourite, which is of course not limited to Corfu, is at midnight where all over Greece the priest announces ‘Christos Anesti!’ - ‘Christ is risen!’ and the holy flame is passed from candle to candle, a sea of light spreading ever outward, to be carried home where the sign of the cross is marked above the door in soot for good luck and God's blessing for the year to come.