Because I haven’t had a car this week it’s been a bit of a quiet one. I did however go to Kalloni on Monday with Maria & Aris. We spent a couple of hours doing our own things & I spent some money in the cheap Chinese shop on warm clothes, bloody cold here at night. It was strange seeing Asian people here, there aren’t many around. I bought a ridiculous sparkly t-shirt which makes me smile every time I look at it!
Maria took me into the farm shop, think Bunnings on a more rural scale. We bought onions to plant, some metal hooks to contain a rosemary bush & some bug killer. I drooled over the rotavators & miniature chainsaws before we made our way to lunch at the local pizza joint.
I had a massive bowl of what I would call pasta puttanesca & the others had a cheesy pizza. I’m making an effort not to eat cheese, the first few weeks I thought what the hell but I was not good with it so being more choosy is a safer option for me!
A trip to the supermarket concluded our afternoon & I couldn’t help myself, I had to take a pic of this cleaning product. At a quick glance & it appears to be rather suggestive?!?
Maria was on a mission to get all the ingredients she needed to make a special type of Easter bread for our shared meal on Sunday. This week has been all about Easter & it’s going to be a huge weekend here. I will try & make some sense of what is happening but I really don’t get it all. Some things are not dissimilar to Easter in Australia but everything here seems to be on steroids when it comes to religion.
Tuesday we spent a couple of lovely hours making the bread (which can be enjoyed all year but particularly at Easter) Πασχαλινο Τσουπεκι. Sometimes big loaves of this contain a dyed Easter eggs but because we were making it early we didn’t decorate with red eggs & our rolls were single serve size, rather than the traditional plaited type (signifying the holy trinity). Maria is working with a tiny oven so she cooked them in three batches.
The ingredients are yeast, water, butter, eggs, sugar, mastic, nutmeg, cardamom & orange rind. Basically you start the yeast in water & then add all the other ingredients in slowly. It took us quite a while to knead it to a smooth consistency & we had fun chatting whilst working. Maria had her Easter liturgy chanting thingie playing in the background & it’s clear to see that the preparation of the Easter foods & traditions are a rich part of the culture of this place.
I am really starting to feel some peace & connection to this place & the people who have gone before me. Sitting in churches one gets a feeling of reverence knowing that throughout the centuries others have sat in the same place, thinking the same thoughts & hoping for the same outcomes. There is a thread of consistency, a feeling of love & a real sense of hope & peace in some of the places I’ve visited. Maria says I have religion whether I acknowledge it or not & she might be right. Not a belief in an omnipotent being but a feeling of generational connection. She talks about the presence of the Virgin Mary to whom the Church which overlooks us here, is dedicated. At night it’s lit up & last night the bells were ringing, a prayer was broadcast over the speakers & people were in attendance until late. There is a definite feeling of something in the air, I can’t quite put my finger on it though. My closest guess is that’s it’s a feeling of togetherness & community, something which I lack in Australia & I am feeling some comfort from, even though I’m clearly not part of this community.
Anyway, back to the bread! Once it was kneaded & rested we started to roll it into long tubes before curling it into snails & leaving to prove again. It was then glazed with beaten egg & sprinkled with crushed walnuts before baking.
They turned out beautifully & you can really taste the orange peel in them. Kinda sweet but not too much. I think they will be great accompanied by savoury food. There is a kind of soup they eat here at Easter which I have been warned off. From what I can gather it’s basically offal with broth & you either love it or hate it. Pretty sure it’s not my jam 😵💫 Here is Maria with the finished product, she’s chuffed to bits they turned out because this is a new recipe.
On Wednesday Maria went to the church & collected some holy oil blessed by the priest, which she brought home on a cotton ball wrapped in foil. She then proceeded, at my request, to anoint my forehead with said oil whilst she muttered some blessings. It is meant to keep me safe & happy for the following year. I had no profound experience but I appreciated that she cared enough to offer me the blessing & that’s possibly what this is all about? The rituals are a way of sharing love, being connected, spending time together & carrying on traditions. How lucky am I to be included in such an important part of the culture of the place & people? I bloody love it here.
Thursday was egg dyeing day. This is probably something that most Australians have seen during Orthodox Easter? There are various stories of how the red came about, but basically it’s to represent the blood of Christ. Thursday is the traditional day to do the dyeing & the eggs are first boiled in preparation for a game called Τσουγρισμα in which turns are taken to tap each other’s eggs. The aim is to have the strongest egg that stays un-cracked the longest. One player taps the end of their egg lightly against the other players and when one end cracks the unbroken egg player uses the same end of their egg to crack the opponents. I’m looking forward to playing this on Sunday when we have our shared meal. The first dyed egg is considered to be the egg of the Virgin Mary & is saved in the home until the following year as protection against the ‘evil eye’.
Friday morning I went up to the Church to see the ladies decorating the icon with flowers in preparation of its removal from the church & parade through the village this evening. The Church looks beautiful, the scaffolding is down & it’s clean, decorated & clearly very loved. There was a large group of women & girls out the back with buckets of flowers & they were united in their task of decorating. At one point someone started singing, what I assume was a hymn & I don’t mind admitting a tear sprung to my eye. Again I think it’s the sense of unity that I’m witnessing that is moving me more than anything.
A priest & an older chap arrived as I was sitting outside in the shade, they were a little puffed after climbing the 114 stone steps but as I left the chanting started over the loud speakers & I think it was their voices I heard?
Maria gave me a red candle which will be lit on Saturday night with the flame from the church blessed by the priest. I leave the candle to burn all night apparently for good luck. The black crosses which I have seen on the door frames of houses are from the soot made as the candle burns & are obviously some kind of blessing for the following year.
At nine thirty pm Friday night the streets were humming with families decked out in their best clothes, making their way to the streets below the church. There was an atmosphere of contained excitement in the air & you can tell that this is an important evening for everyone. I loved seeing all the different ages mingling together, chatting & sharing in some common bond. The church looked beautiful all lit up & there was a contestant procession of people coming to & from it via the steps.
An hour later than anticipated we watched as the icon was carried down the steps & into the street by four burly men. The crowds followed behind the icon in an orderly & respectful fashion. The streets are cobbled & in places barely lit but there was no jostling & elderly people, pushchairs & little kids are all respected however slow their pace is. Again it’s that sense of not having to hurry anything.
Maria & I waited for the icon to double back & then she was very keen for me to pass underneath it. This is symbolic of Jesus rising from the tomb & a way of attracting good health for the following year. So I joined with lots of others in passing underneath it. How fortunate I am to be involved in this ceremony, I think a lot of the foreign visitors don’t know what it’s all about but I have the inside scoop!
We followed along & parted ways at the seafront. I wanted to eat & Maria was coming home to sleep. This was almost midnight & the place was absolutely heaving. I couldn’t get a table in the restaurant I wanted to try & so I ended up buying a chicken stick to bring back to my room. Eating very late but damn it tasted good!
These kids were leading the parade, girls first then the boys following them. It’s lovely seeing them involved in such an old tradition. Like I say it’s a big weekend here for everyone whatever age or denomination.
I’m not sure what happens tonight. I have my candle & will be going to the church at midnight but that’s all I know so far. I’ll post this now because it’s getting a bit long but I will try & update with today & tomorrow (feast day) so you can get a full sense of what’s happening here. It’s cold, wet & overcast so we might get wet tonight but the show goes on. I long for an opportunity to put on some summer clothes but alas I think I may miss out on any real summer vibes. Can’t have it all!
