Having spent a wonderful holiday in Serres and Thessaloniki, here I am relaxing at home on this last day of the Easter break. Since Alkis and I flew back home on Thursday, I've been looking at all the photos we took, bringing back so many wonderful moments of what was probably the best Easter holiday I've ever spent in recent years.
I slept in today and missed most of the sunshine that flooded my terrace, but I did enjoy breakfast outside and blogging in the remaining sunshine of this bright Sunday in Larnaca. Since we came back from Greece, I've been mostly sleeping or lazing around, unpacking and doing the laundry. It's funny how much laundry can pile up after a week away! I don't have a tumble drier, so I was really thankful for the sunshine today which, apart from drying up laundry, also inspired this post!!
Wash the guts very thoroughly and cut them in small pieces. Be careful not to cut them in too small pieces because you will no be able to skewer them. Wash the bowels very carefully and try to clean them from inside. Leave them in a washbowl and keep the ends of each bowel in one side in order to be able to seperate them. Prepare the souvla (iron stick). Start skewering the guts in the iron stick until all are passed to the iron stick. Pin one end of the first bowel in the one side of the souvla and wind the intestine around the skewer. If the bowel reaches its end tie it with the end of the next bowel and continue to wind until all bowels are wrapped and no guts are visible (you should only see the bowels along the souvla). Season with salt, pepper and oregano. Prepare the fire and roast on all sides until guts are brown and crispy. Check that "kokoretsi" is ready and remove from fire. Cut the kokoretsi in cylinders of 5 cm wide in order to remove it from the souvla in pieces. Put in platter, oil the kokoretsi pieces, season with extra salt, pepper and oregano and serve.
Kokoretsi is a meal that is traditionally made and served at Easter, along with Lamb on the Spit. It is made from the internal organs of the lamb, arranged on a skewer and cooked over the hot coals along with the lamb on Easter Sunday. It can be found at other times of the year in some tavernas. The purpose of this meal was to make use of the organs of the lamb, that was gutted and cleaned ready for the spit, and not to waste any parts of the animal. Kokoretsi is traditionally served as a starter.
Easter is the greatest celebration of the year for the Greek Orthodox Church . It is the symbol of human rebirth and the promise of life after death. It is the ultimate message of love and forgiveness, it is the time when God and sinners reconcile and spread the love Jesus Christ taught the world with His death and glorious Resurrection.
A few days before Easter, housewives do the spring cleaning so that everything looks new and shiny for Easter. The Holy Week begins on Monday following Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday , olive branches are taken to church and left there for forty days. The sanctified olive branch is then taken home. The olive leaves are placed in a special pot called “kapnistiri” and are used for incense burning. The smoke from the olive leaves is believed to remove all evil and jealousy in the family.
Easter 2006 at Saint Raphael's Church
On Holy Thursday, eggs are dyed red, ready to be cracked soon after Resurrection on Easter Day’s early morning hours. The icons in our churches are covered with black cloth as a sign of mourning for Our Lord who went to the cross and died in order to take away our sins. The power of death and the reality of evil ruled the world on that dreadful Thursday. Yet, Jesus Christ’s death marks the beginning of the victory of life over death. The solemn service consists of The Twelve Gospel Readings – narratives from the four Gospels relating the events of the Holy Passion and Jesus’ last instructions to His disciples. After the fifth gospel, the crucifix is adorned with a flower wreath and carried in procession. Earlier in the morning, the Holy Communion is taken. It consists of a few drops of red wine mixed with some breadcrumbs symbolizing the blood and the body of Jesus Christ.
Good Friday is baking day. The Greek homes are filled with the delightful scents of mastic, mahaleb and cinnamon while flaounes, tsourekia and koulouria (sesame bread) are being baked. However, Good Friday is also a day of mourning, fasting and prayer. In the evening, at church, we observe the liturgy of Epitaphios - a shroud depicting Christ’s sacred body is carried in procession and placed in a flowered bier that represents Christ’s tomb. With both sorrow and joy, during this solemn and profoundly touching ceremony, we sing along with the priests and choir “I Zoe En Tafo” :
"In a tomb they lay Thee O Christ the life. By Thy Death Thou has cast down the might of death and become the font of life for all the world"
On Holy Saturday morning, we observe the “First Resurrection”, that’s when the news is brought that Christ is no longer in His grave. At about 9:00 in the morning, the church bell rings joyfully, the church doors are banged and the black cloth covering the icons falls. But the grand liturgy of Resurrection is held at midnight. Everyone goes to church with a candle. At about midnight, the lights go off and the priest solemnly proclaims “Here is the Holy Light” which is actually brought from Jerusalem to the Orthodox world. Then we all light our candles and greet each other with “Christos Anesti” (= Christ Has Risen) to which the other replies “Alithos Anesti” (He Has Risen Indeed). Then off we go home for a midnight supper consisting of magiritsa (Greek Easter Soup) and flaounes, tsourekia and koulouria.
Magiritsa
Easter Sunday is a day of feast, dancing and singing. Lambs are roasted on a spit and a sumptuous Easter lunch is prepared which usually lasts till late afternoon. Families gather together or go on picnics, both children and adults engage in red-egg-crack competitions. The winner is the one whose egg is left uncracked! Easter Day also reminds us that we should forget and forgive allowing the Holy Light to shine on.
Roasted lamb on a spit
Do you celebrate Easter in your country? Have you got any special customs and traditions?
In my part of the world, Easter is the greatest celebration of the year. After a week of fasting - for some people it's forty days - Easter Day marks the end of Lent and fasting. Having observed the Passion of Jesus Christ during the Holy Week, it is now the time to make merry to our heart's content and celebrate His glorious resurrection!! We almost invariably do that with a huge barbecue of various meats topped off with the "ovelias" - a whole lamb on a skewer and turning over coal.
Well, I'm not really a meat lover as the only meat I usually eat is chicken or turkey but I'm not a vegetarian either, so once a year I like to eat some of this tender lamb! We eat this with lots of freshly squeezed lemon juice and roast potatoes. This is the main course preceded by two starters: a variety of salads and some "souvla" - a variety of meats cooked on coal:
Believe it or not, I was unable to resist dessert! Ah right, I have the sweet tooth!
I had a bit of everything! I loved them all....and didi not worry the least bit about calories!!! Diet starts together with the last school term on April 12!!!
I forgot to say that we also cracked our red eggs. I was the loser just after the Midnight Resurrection Mass on Saturday but the great winner on Easter Sunday Lunch! Unfortunately, my eggs didn't turn out to be a great success!
Naturally, for us Greeks Easter rhymes with dancing. I only wish I were a good enough dancer to join them!
I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world ~ Mother Teresa
Funny how I always think of these words on Holy Friday. Being a Greek Orthodox I've never quite understood why Holy Friday is also called Good Friday. Certainly, it wasn't a good day for Mary - Jesus' mum. Her lamentations are heartbreaking
Ω γλυκυ μου εαρ γλυκυτατον μου τεκνον
(Oh my sweet offspring, my sweet child)
Virgin Mary suffered her son's loss like an ordinary mother who mourns for her son's loss. The king of kings,however, did not hesitate to wash his disciples' feet just before his betrayal by Judas and his Crucifixion.
And while Jesus' mother was lamenting, while He was still on the Cross, He did find the strength to whisper:
Πατερ αφες αυτοις, ου γαρ οιδασι τι ποιουσι
(Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing)
When someone in our family dies, we often ask ourselves what their last words were. Most of us want to know if we really understood how much we loved them!
Shakespeare once wrote in his play Richard II…The tongues of dying men--Enforce attention like deep harmony--Where words are scarce--They are seldom spent in vain--For they breathe truth--That breathe their words in pain.
Jesus' words in pain breathe truth and they should be a lesson of unconditional love.
Holy Tuesday services urge us to be spiritually prepared to receive Christ.
We should take this time to reflect on:
The Parable of the Ten Virgins. The maidens who filled their lamp with
oil were prepared to receive the bridegroom. Those with empty lamps were shut
out of the marriage feast. So each of us should light our lives with faith and
good works and be ready to receive Christ.
Our Readiness to meet Christ. This is the message of the hymn proclaiming:
"Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Saviour, but I have no wedding
garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul
and save me.
Recent Comments