Orthodox Easter is the biggest holiday of the year throughout Greece. 

Meanwhile, the island of Corfu has particularly unique traditions of celebrating Easter, famous all over the world. Here they are more pious, with rituals that you will not see anywhere else. If you are planning to visit Corfu in the spring, try to take part in the celebration. 

The period leading up to Easter is Lent, when meat, dairy products, eggs, and oil are not eaten. 

EASTER WEEK 

Palm Sunday . A huge procession begins in Corfu Town in honor of St. Spyridon, the island’s patron saint. The crowd walks through the old streets of the Venetian city. This ceremony has been taking place since 1630. Corfiots are grateful to the saint for saving the island from a deadly plague in 1629. Concerts by the Philharmonic Orchestra set the mood for Holy Week. 

On Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, services are held in churches, church music is played, and music and poetry evenings are organized. 

On Holy Thursday, the first bells ring to announce that it is time to dye Easter eggs red. This is one of the oldest traditions of Greek Orthodox Christians. The egg symbolizes the tomb from which Jesus Christ rose, and the color red, associated with life and victory, symbolizes the blood of Christ. The tradition of dyeing eggs is associated with the Last Supper, the last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples. 

On this day, 12 Gospel readings are read in churches. By the way, the Catholic church in Corfu also joins in the Gospel reading. Here, 12 candles are lit, and after each Gospel reading, one candle is blown out. 

Good Friday is a sad and special day. Early in the morning, funeral bells ring. Processions leave the churches, carrying flower-decked biers, as if depicting the body of Christ being carried. The largest procession takes place in the evening, with people holding candles in their hands. The procession is accompanied by the island’s three main orchestras, children’s choirs, and mournful marches. The entire Liston Square is illuminated with the purple light of lanterns. 

Holy Saturday is the most impressive day, with spectacles that are awaited by both the city’s residents and the many tourists who have gathered. 

At 6 am, an earthquake is simulated in the Church of the Holy Virgin Mary Xenon (Panagia ton Xenon – Faneromeni Church) in the old town of Corfu Town (reminiscent of the earthquake described in the Bible during the resurrection of Christ). At 9 am, a procession takes place in the Church of St. Spyridon. This is a tradition that dates back to Venetian times, when the authorities had banned processions for residents and they took place inside churches. At the same time, the relics of St. Spyridon are brought out, this time commemorating the saint’s merits during the famine. Funeral melodies are played. 

And suddenly the mood changes in a few minutes.. 

At 11 a.m. the church bells ring. Almost human-sized red clay jugs begin to fall from all the balconies, each filled with water. The streets are covered in red clay shards. The falling and breaking of the jugs is accompanied by joyful shouts and ovations – it is believed that the more shards the jug breaks into, the more happiness it will bring to the one who threw it, and the shard placed in the front will bring good luck for the whole coming year. At the same time, the bells ring loudly. Orchestras begin to play joyful music. People greet each other – Xristos anesti (Christ is risen).

The origin of the custom, which lasts for several minutes, is unclear. It is said that the Corfiots borrowed it from the Venetians. During the Venetian rule, people would throw old things out of their windows on New Year’s Eve, hoping to receive new and better things in the coming year. The Corfiots transferred this tradition to Easter. Others say that this tradition comes from even older times, when the Greeks used noise to awaken the goddess of spring, Persephone. In any case, rebirth is celebrated here in a special way – joyfully and loudly. 

In the evening, services are held in churches, people hold candles in their hands, they are lit one by one (the fire is usually brought from the Holy Land, and then candle by candle is lit all over Greece). At 12 o’clock at night, the priest shouts “Kristos anesti”, at which time a bunch of fireworks appear in the sky, dynamite is exploded in small towns, people joyfully hug and congratulate each other. The celebration moves to taverns, that night they eat magiritsa soup, fogatsa bread, and drink a lot of wine. Because Easter, resurrection!

Easter Sunday . Joyful processions with orchestras take place in the towns from the morning. The smells of roast lamb on a spit and kokoretsi (rolled lamb entrails – a good snack for gourmets) fill every yard. 

However, roasting a whole lamb on a spit is not a simple culinary tradition. The sacrifice of a lamb is mentioned in the Old Testament. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham obeyed, prepared firewood, and lit a fire. Isaac, seeing what his father was doing, asked him, “Here are the wood and the wood, but where is the lamb?” When God saw that Abraham was about to obey, he told him to stop. Abraham sacrificed a lamb that was grazing nearby. Lambs were sacrificed to atone for their sins to God. Today, sacrifices are no longer necessary. But people roast a lamb, slowly turning it over a fire. The lamb cooks for a long time—4, 5, 6 hours—during which time the family eats snacks, drinks wine, and socializes.