For Greeks, Better Than Christmas

 

In Greece, Easter is the most fabulous time of the year.

For families, it’s the must-time to eat, drink, and be merry together.

In my four years in Greece, I learned to celebrate Easter like a Greek.

Just in terms of fun, it’s key to celebrate in the embrace of a real Greek family, when the

traditional roasting of a lamb outside becomes a daylong center of the action. In the countryside and 

on the islands, it begins maybe the day before with someone digging a pit. In Athens, it happens on the 

rooftops, where a rigged-up roasting is engineered.  Easter morning the lamb roast begins over a real 

fire. The men—what always seems to be a succession of the uncles—hunker down to oversee the 

continual turning of the lamb, basting it all day with aromatic and alcoholic marinades.  

It’s always hot on this radiant Greek Sunday, and soon the sweating uncles discard their shirts. 

Music comes from somewhere and everywhere, and everyone else sings and claps hands. The 

generations hang about, celebrating their togetherness. Herds of young cousins race about, screaming 

their delight.

As in other holidays at other times with other nationalities, meantime confidences are shared, 

romances are begun or sealed, and relatives from afar are caught up with the best family gossip.

Meantime, the drinking never stops.  Ouzo, retsina, fine imported wines and, maybe under a 

tree, an informal bar serves men straight shots of whatever they fancy. The sun beats down. The dancing 

becomes staggered.  Drenching laughter rises and falls.

By the time the lamb is finally perfectly roasted, everyone digs in and eats until stuffed. 

Living in Greece for years was a peak lifetime experience for me, and the Easters provided some 

of the best moments. Also the best eating.  Greeks maintain the best meat in the world is roasted lamb, 

fresh from the spit, cooked outside.

           And they are right!  If you’re offered the choice between roasted lamb al fresco in a Greek backyard,

or primo steak in a fashionable big-city American restaurant, go with the lamb fresh from the skewer. But of course,

Easter is the most sacred day on the Christian calendar. Not everyone celebrates only with drunken feasts.

I and a friend spent my first Greek Easter on the holy Cycladic island of Tinos, where I had heard that

extraordinary weeklong Greek Orthodox church liturgies are held. We were enveloped in extraordinary

liturgical music for the entire Holy Week.  The music and the sacred ambiance were unforgettable, yet

curiously this amazing celebration is little known in the West or the tourist industry.

The music, some of it purportedly ancient, from the first Christian centuries, was a mix of choir singing

and chanting, which sounded foreign and of another and better world.  I remember standing there, this heavenly

music transporting me for hours in a celestial daze. This may not be for everyone, but it most definitely was for me.

Tinos is a small island, with many villages, and what seems like even more churches. During this week we

went from church to church, culminating I think on Holy Thursday, when a procession—with flowers and

wreaths and statuary everywhere, with everyone singing those mesmerizing chants—all wove down to the

harbor where the wreaths were thrown in the water. As I remember how that was, a sense of holy magic still,

after nearly fifty years, overwhelms me.

Greeks honor Tinos not only at Easter but also for a miraculous icon of the Virgin found there

more than two hundred years ago.  But it always had a holy reputation, going back to ancient times.

Poseidon, the god of the sea, was said to have sent what’s always called “a swarm of storks” to purge

the island of poisonous snakes.   

So it is in Greece. Magic everywhere. Ancient tales of snake-purging gods.  Families celebrating

with pagan roasts. The sun blessing all.  Ah, Greece!   

 Laurie Devine, Author

Kronos ~ Now Available on Amazon Kindle!

P.S. Orthodox Easter is always a week or so different than in Western Christian churches. This year, the Orthodox holiday is May 5 and the Western one is March 31. They follow different ancient calendars.

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