Good Friday 2009

Greek Easter without red rain is a rare Easter indeed. The weather has remained favourable and even the showers on Wednesday were unusually clean. Symi is bright with flowers and bustling with people as many Symiots working elsewhere have returned home for the holidays. Today is Good Friday and tonight there will be the traditional solemn candlelit processions of the funerary biers through all the parishes, accompanied by fire crackers to keep the devil at bay. Many Symiots are fasting today and as one woman said to us this morning, it really is difficult to bake all those trays of sugar cookies and cheese pies when you cannot sample them until Sunday. At midnight on Saturday night the Resurrection will be celebrated with great joy and a lot of noise. As Toby mentioned in his blog recently, Greek television even gives DIY demonstrations for making your own rockets…

There is a taboo on manual work such as carpentry and metal work over Easter as these trades are connected with the crucifixion so the workshops of Symi are closed until Tuesday next week when the holiday weekend is over. Instead Easter Sunday and Monday are spent roasting lamb and feasting in celebration of the Resurrection.

Kalo Pasca to all our Orthodox readers and a peaceful weekend to everyone else!

Regards,

Adriana