Easter Triduum - Greek style

Easter in Greece is an interesting dilemma.

On one hand, as a cultural tourist, one expects, and looks forward to, great Easter celebrations given the staunchly Orthodox Christian history and religious identity of the Hellenic state. On the other hand, as a commercial tourist, one also expects the entire country to shut down during this period of first mourning (on Good Friday) then feasting on Easter Sunday. So not the best time to see the sights.

But oh well, we decided to go nonetheless. After all, if we couldn’t visit any sights, we could certainly revel in the Easter mystery with our fellow Christians!

The island of Patmos is supposed to have the most exciting Easter celebrations throughout the entire Greek nation. But we were warned against going there because the rest of Greece would have descended upon it and we would not have seen much but would have paid pockets full of euros for accommodation.

So we scratched that. And stayed in Athens instead.

Plaka, the Old Town neighbourhood of Athens, is dotted with little churches that blend right into the low rise, single storey homes that look like little igloos built into hilly slopes. On every other corner we wandered, we saw a church. Which remained locked during the day (unlike Catholic cathedrals that tend to remain open for sinners to wander in) but which suddenly came alive on Good Friday night.

Having arrived on Good Friday morning itself, we wandered out into the Plaka neighbourhood right next to our amazing Herodian Hotel at the base of the Acropolis to see if we could find some action.

Home made Easter nest hanging above the door to one of Plaka's more exquisite looking houses.

The Plaka neighbourhood - my favourite area in Athens - unusually quiet on Good Friday afternoon.

As night fell, we saw loads of locals streaming into the normally touristy Plaka area, trying to squeeze into one of the many little churches to participate in the Good Friday service. Street vendors leveraged on the opportunity to sell overpriced candles at street corners in anticipation of the candlelight street procession that would soon follow the end of the service.

Addii and I dutifully picked up a candle as obliging tourists – after all, how does one partake of a candlelight procession without a candle??

As we were not able to squeeze into the small little churches, we spent quite some time wandering between churches, peeping through stained glass windows and hanging outside the church compound with other stranded procession-hopefuls and patiently waiting for something to happen.   

The faithful sneakin a peak through the barred windows of a

small chapel  to partake in the Good Friday service by proxy

 

Stranded hopefuls milling outside the church waiting for the candlelight procession to start

Then suddenly, with an intangible surge in the atmosphere, the crowd starting moving. Flames were passed around as strangers lit each other’s candles, and we followed the inevitable squeeze of human bodies as expected. Up and down stairs hewed into the slopes, through winding roads and past other clueless tourists having a late alfresco dinner in the cool spring night. 

 

Lighted Chinese paper lanterns used by locals
during the procession!



The crowded procession making its way through
 the winding streets of Plaka

It never seemed to end though. And after some time of aimless wandering, the crowd started to thin. And saddled with jetlag after having just arrived that morning, we decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.

  

The other thing that we were told not to miss as an Easter specialty was lamb grilled on a spit. All families roast their own lamb for their family meal on Easter Sunday and it is a decidedly Greek thing to do and eat.

So we went hunting for lamb spit.

And lucky us, just around the corner of our hotel, we found an old man with a dead animal skewered above orange coals, and we promptly decided to have our Easter lamb there.

The unfinished product....and 3 hours later....



Sensing my desire to have a go at the lamb roasting, the old man invited me to hold onto the roasting handle then asked Addii to take a photo of us. How spontaneous!

Final product: succulent roasted lamb with fries

And for the more adventurous palate: roasted intestines stuffed with other innards from the same lamb.
Yup. I did say adventurous, didn't I?