Easter in Greece

Sunday, April 4, 2010
Chania, Crete

Well, the Easter Bunny found us. Modifications were necessary due to our traveling, but a handful of chocolate eggs in an ashtray is just as good as a barrel of jellybeans in a basket. Sitting on a balcony, looking out over the intense blue of the Mediterranean, sipping champagne (ok, not really champagne… two dollar sparkling wine) and waiting for the lamb to finish roasting is not bad either.

We have been blessed with incredible weather while here on Crete. The skies are clear and the sun is washing down upon us. The bank in town says it’s 22 degrees Celsius. What I know is that when you’re in the sun it’s hot. When you’re in the shade it’s cool. If you can find a spot that lets you shift between sun and shade as your mood dictates, then the weather is perfect.

We found a Catholic church here in Chania, so our Easter celebration was familiar enough to keep me from becoming completely homesick. They must figure that folks attending a Roman Catholic church MUST be visitors. We were handed missals and songbooks in English when we first entered. Although much of the Mass was in Greek, several songs and the homily (Part I) was in English. There must be a fairly good sized expat community here, because the choir seemed to be made up of mostly English speakers.

Jeff has done some blogging about our experience last night at the Easter vigil and this morning at Easter Mass, so I’ll keep my remarks brief. What I observed is that here, the vigil is THE thing. Everything leads up to midnight at which time, the celebration of the resurrection is marked by the lighting of hundreds of candles. Throughout the evening, the plaza in front of the Orthodox Cathedral was packed with people anticipating the moment of celebration. The entire community seemed to be present; all awaiting the moment when the Easter light would be brought out into the night. At midnight the church bells began to peal, the people began to kiss one another and the fire from the Easter candle was passed from person to person until the entire square was flickering with light. Within minutes, the crowd began to move, processing up the narrow streets, filling them from wall to wall, creating a river of light. It was an awesome sight to behold.