A time of serious fasting

It has been raining steadily since last night. The whole country is under a slow-moving blanket of cloud and the forecast is for rain and thunderstorms until at least tomorrow evening. Fortunately so far it has been fairly clean stuff, not the usually liquid mud that is typical of this time of year. We had quite a heavy dust storm with strong winds on Wednesday but there are no gales forecast for our area over the next few days. Out in the more exposed parts of the Aegean it is a different story.

While the Protestant/Catholic world might be well into the hot cross buns and chocolate bunnies by now, here in Greece we are heading into 'big week', a time of serious fasting prior to Easter next weekend. At the same time the rush is on to complete the monumental quantities of baking, cleaning and whitewashing that Greek Easter entails. Wheels of cheese, kilos of flour and sugar and trays of eggs are carried home for cheese pies and other traditional delicacies. The whiff of chlorine bleach and furniture polish competes with the last of the spring flowers and the scent of orange blossom. Someone dropped a bag of whitewash at the Pedi road junction, resulting in an interesting trail of tracks in three directions. A solitary elderly municipal employee is working his way systematically down the Panormitis road, clearing the verges of daisies and thistles and picking up litter. By this morning he was nearing the Kampos bus stop. One thing about weeding in this climate - do it now and it does not need to be repeated until November! The litter, on the other hand, is an on-going problem.

We wish all our readers and visitors a happy and safe Easter this weekend.

Regards,
Adriana
The Symi Visitor