Good news from Symi to Start the New Month.

The skewers are to discourage the local cats...

The new month arrived with a flurry of April showers and after three dry weeks the island certainly needed the drink.  The weather will remain mild and partly cloudy for the rest of the week with midday temperatures on Symi in the low twenties.

Magnificient moths doing what moths do when Spring is in the air.

Regular visitors to Symi may remember Kleanthi, the young Greek girl with the waist length wavy golden locks who used to work at the Symi Visitor office and occasionally at the Sunflower Laundry when not helping out at her mother, Roulla’s kiosk or her sister, Despina’s flower shop.  Well, Kleanthi was delivered of a beautiful baby girl in Rhodes this morning.  Congratulations to the happy mother and Kostas, the even more delighted dad.  Good news from Symi to start the new month.

Next week is Big Week, the most solemn week in the Greek Orthodox calendar and culminating in Easter.  While in many parts of the world Easter has become another opportunity for marathon retail therapy in Greece Easter is still very much a religious holiday and in these times of austerity even more so than usual.  When it comes to a choice between stocking chocolate rabbits or Pascal candles, Greek shopkeepers are more likely to invest in the latter when feeling the economic pinch.  Even those Greeks who don’t fast for the full duration of Lent often fast seriously during Big Week as it is a time for atonement and reflection.  The big celebrations start with the Resurrection at midnight on Easter Saturday night and by the time Sunday dawns everyone is really ready for the Easter lamb, fattened on oregano bushes and wild flowers.

Have a good week.

Regards,

Adriana