Happy Easter!

Easter is the most important celebration of the year in the Greek Orthodox calendar—far more significant than Christmas. Here we focus on some of the traditions and customs associated with this very special time - with a particular emphasis on food!

The lead up to Easter truly gets under way at the beginning of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday special church services take place, and members of the congregation are given palm fronds which should be preserved until the following year. For the rest of the week, many households are busy with preparations for the great Easter feast. According to custom, Holy Tuesday is the day to start baking the traditional Easter breads and Holy Thursday is the day when the Easter eggs are boiled and dyed red (see below). On Good Friday, the Epitaphios (Christ’s funeral bier) is decorated with flowers, and in the evening the solemn candlelit Epitaphios procession takes place. In Rethymnon, the procession usually starts at the church of the Four Martyrs and makes its way through the Old Town via the Rimondi Fountain towards the Mikri Panagia.

On Easter Saturday, late in the evening, people holding unlit candles start to congregate outside local churches in anticipation of Midnight Mass. At the stroke of midnight the resurrection is announced with the words Χριστός Ανέστι, and the priest passes on the ‘light of the world’ by lighting the candle of the nearest member of the congregation, which is then passed on from person to person. Town comes alive with the sound of church bells and firecrackers, and people then make their way home to start the Easter celebrations.

The Lenten fast is traditionally broken shortly after Midnight Mass by eating Mayeritsa soup made with lamb entrails, lemon and rice.

By midday on Easter Sunday the barbecues are on the go, the lamb is on the spit and the partying has begun!

Eggs, Bread and Pies

Greek Easter would not be the same without ‘Red Eggs’. These dyed hard boiled eggs - red to symbolize the blood of Christ - are an essential part of the Easter celebrations. ‘Tapping the eggs’ - hitting your egg against other people’s egg is an age old tradition—if your egg remains intact then this is supposed to bring you luck. You’ll find pre-dyed hard boiled eggs in all the major supermarkets around town but you might find that you get into the spirit of the festivities if you dye your own. You could use red food colouring, but the more traditional method is to make the dye with onion skins in a solution of water and vinegar (gamesmanship tip: the vinegar helps to harden the shells!). Recipes we have seen recommend the skins of around fifteen onions to a dozen eggs—this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to find a recipe for fifteen onions if you think ahead. If you start saving onion skins from now on you should have enough by Easter!

The baking of bread, cakes and pies to mark specific religious occasions is a long standing tradition on Crete. Ceremonial breads are often intricately decorated and are art forms in themselves. On Crete, you will find a huge range of regional varieties . No matter how long you live here you’ll never be able to try them all! The ceremonial bread that is most typically associated with Easter is ‘Tsoureki’, this is a sweet bread which may be flavoured with almonds, mastic or orange peel. The dough is frequently fashioned into plaits and often a ‘red egg’ is also inserted before baking.

In the Rethymnon region, local specialities include ‘Kallitsounia’ which are small pies filled with Mizithra, a local soft white cheese, (which can be either salt or sweet), often served with honey. These can be found in many forms and sizes and have many different names. For example, in some places they are known as ‘lychnarakia’ (little oil lamps), because of their shape. In the Anogia region, mizithra pies are often referred to as ‘sarikopites’ — apparently after the ‘sariki’ the traditional Cretan male head dress. Whatever they are called and whatever their shape, if you have the opportunity to try one of these delicacies, it shouldn’t be missed!

Further Sources of Information

An online ‘google’ search will point you to any number of many sites relating to Greek and Cretan Easter traditions (too many to mention here!). However, one site that seems to be particularly informative about local traditions is www.sfakia-crete.com - it’s got a wealth of other information about the area, too. If you want to try your hand at some typical Cretan recipes, there are a couple of books that we have found useful. These are ’Cretan Cooking’ by Maria and Nikos Psilakis, Karmanor Publications (ISBN: 960-7448-11-1), and ’Cretan Cookery’ by Stella Kalogeraki, Mediterraneo Editions (ISBN: 960-8227-54-2). You should be able to find both of these books without too much trouble at international bookstores in the larger towns on Crete.

And finally, for those of you are enjoying a Cretan Easter for the first time here are a few phrases that might come in handy: ‘Καλό Πάσχα’ - Happy Easter! ‘Χριστός Ανέστι’ - Christ has risen. ‘Αλιθώς Ανέστι’ - Truly he has risen. ‘Χρόνια Πολλά’ - Many years (traditional generic holiday greeting). And wherever you are and whatever you are doing, we hope you have a lovely holiday!