Eternal Easter in a Greek Village

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March 12, 2009

     We celebrate Easter in Olympos, the Greek village where I was born, just as they did in the time of the Byzantines. I have heard this said ever since I was a little girl. The procession that takes place on the Tuesday after Easter (below) is one of our older traditions. To honor the dead and celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, we carry icons from the main Orthodox Church to the cemetery, where our priest says a prayer over each grave. Then we take the icons into the fields to pray at small private chapels—to ensure good crops, some old people say. An auction is held when we return to the village, and the highest bidders carry the icons back into the church. After that there is a big dance.

     Easter has always been the happiest season in our village. The stark mountains on the island of Karpathos turn green again, and everyone begins to feel springtime inside themselves. There are so many things to do to prepare for the holiday, and when it begins, one ceremony follows another.

     Yet this Easter was to be especially happy for me, because it was my first back home since my husband and I left for the United States ten years before. A few things have changed in the village since my departure. But many old Easter customs are still followed just as they were centuries ago by my Byzantine ancestors.

     Perched on a mountain in the northern part of Karpathos, an island between Crete and Rhodes, Olympos is still one of the most isolated villages in Greece. The dialect that we speak is so old that many of our words date back to the time of Homer. The tools used by village farmers to cultivate wheat and barley on the terraced slopes are the same as those used in Byzantine days. Our instruments are time-honored—a goatskin bagpipe, lute, and three-stringed lyre—and our musical couplets are renowned on the island.

     Olympos was first built down by the sea on a beautiful natural harbor. But pirate attacks forced the People to move up onto the fountain in the ninth century AD. Until recently there was no road connecting Olympos to the other 11 villages on Karpathos. And there is still only one telephone for the 600 residents. Yet these are the things that make Olympos unique, and we are very proud of our heritage.

     To get ready for the festivities, some men of the village have their hair trimmed in a street outside the main coffeehouse. Homes have been whitewashed and doors freshly painted in anticipation of the holiday.

     The women of Olympos bake special breads at Easter time in large outdoor ovens (below) that are share by several neighborhoods: round loaves, called koulouria, and fancifully shaped and more ornate ones, called pouloi. They often enclose eggs dyed different colors, red being most common because it signifies the blood of Christ on the Cross. These old ovens are also used to roast the lambs or goats for the Easter dinner.

     Most women of the village still prefer traditional dress, though the men and some of the young people wear the clothes of modern Greece. Our long-sleeved dresses, black scarves, and colorful aprons are everyday links to a distant past.Grief pours forth on Good Friday as women cry for members of their families who have died during the year. Pictures of their loved ones have been placed on a bier decorated with flowers, which represents the tomb of Christ (below). And now, after a formal church service where they had mourned Christ's death, they show pain for their own loss.

     The mood of the whole village lifts on Saturday as everything is made ready for the celebration of the Resurrection. The highest moment comes late that night after all the lights in the church are put out to symbolize the darkness of the world.

     At the stroke of midnight, white-bearded Father Timotheos Hatzipapas (below) steps from the Royal Doors of the sanctuary carrying a lighted candle. Then he chants, "Come forth and receive light from the unwaning light and glorify Christ, who is risen from the dead.

     Parishioners come forward with a new white candle to receive this holy light, which we later take home. We consider it good luck if the candle stays lighted all the way home.

     Children set off firecrackers when the service is over. Once home, all sit down at table to break the Lenten fast with a late supper of soup, salad, sour cream, cheese, and wine. We dwell in joy.

     Preparing the Easter meal for her family, Irini Diakogeorgiou (below) shows her daughter, Marina, how to stuff a baby goat.

At our home my mother hands me some lace as my daughter, Arhontoula (below), gets help from my cousin and sister-in-law, both named Maria, with a kolaina, a necklace of gold coins passed down by the women of my family.

Just before Easter dinner we tap eggs together (below). The person whose egg lasts longest without cracking will have good luck. As for me, I could not wish for more than to be with my family again at Easter time.

National Geographic Magazine, by Maria Nicolaidis-Karanikolas Photography by James L. Stanfield