Easter Traditions in Cyprus
07/02/10 16:45
Easter is the greatest celebration in the Greek Orthodox Church.It is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon of the spring
equinox and this year falls on the 23rd of April.
To celebrate Easter everything should look clean and new, so houses are
cleaned, painted or white-washed, and new clothes are a "must", especially
new shoes. Holy Week is dedicated to church-going and to baking, etc.
On Palm Sunday a procession makes its way around the church with an icon of
Christ. This procession is to commemorate Christ's entry into Jerusalem .
Everybody holds olive branches, kiriaki ton vaion, which is the Cypriot
version of the palm fronds that would have been used when Christ entered
Jerusalem. Sacks of olive leaves are taken into the church where they are
kept for forty days. The then dried olive leaves are shared out among the
congregation and taken to their homes to be used in the kapnistiri which is
a small burner in which some burning charcoal is placed with olive leaves on
top. The olive leaves would traditionally be burnt when asking for help from
God, when a visitor arrives, when they buy something new or when they start
something new.
In Peyia the traditional day for the housewives to do their Easter baking is
the Saturday after Good Friday, not the Thursday before as is usual
elsewhere. They bake flaounes, a kind of cheese cake of shortcrust pastry
made from sheep's milk with a cheese, egg and mint filling, formed into
triangular and square shapes. Koulouria are baked with milk, spices and a
little sugar and tyropittes are loaves with small pieces of the cheese used
for flaounes added and rolled in sesame seeds. In addition it is traditional
in Peyia to make a special meat pie called mpaskia or empaskia which is made
with the cheese stuffing for flaounes mixed together with meat from a young
goat.
Eggs are dyed as well. Traditionally they are dyed red with a special root
called rizari. In Peyia beetroot is also used to dye the eggs. Eggs can also
be dyed yellow. For this purpose the yellow marguerites that cover the
waysides and fields during April are used. In Peyia some people paint flower
patterns on the eggs with dye from the marguerites and place them in a
muslin bag to boil in the dye. This colours the egg and leaves the painted
design.
Good Friday this year is the 21st of April. In the afternoon everyone takes
flowers to church so that the young girls can decorate the Epitafios which
represents Christ's tomb, the Holy Sepulchre. This is a four-posted litter
with a canopy under which lies a richly adorned silk cloth with an image of
Christ on it. The whole structure is completely decorated with flowers, a
task that takes the greater part of Good Friday afternoon. Traditionally the
Epitafios was decorated by virgins, to signify The Virgin Mary.
At lunchtime the traditional Faki Xidati, vinegar and lentil soup is eaten,
containing vinegar because it is said that when Christ asked for water on
his way to Calgary but he was given vinegar instead.
The streets along which the Epitafios will pass in solemn procession later
that night are being decorated with coloured lights and Easter eggs. The
procession starts after the evening service with the priests preceding, then
the Scouts or young men carrying the litter of Christ and then the choir,
singing hymns. The whole congregation follows, and children light sparklers
on the way. Fireworks are lit around the church. But before the procession
leaves the church the congregation will kiss the hand of the priest and take
a flower. (After the service the flower will be taken home and used together
with the olive leaves as incense). Then the whole procession led by the
Epitafios leaves the church in an easterly direction and returns from the
west after going around the village square which has been decorated for the
occasion. On returning to the door of the church the Epitafios is raised
aloft and the congregation passes underneath it back into the church.
On Saturday there is a sermon during which the church doors are banged and
candleholders shaken, this is to signify that Christ is no longer in His
grave.
At five in the afternoon a bonfire is lit in the churchyard and someone will
sing the song of the Virgin Mary. The bonfire represents burning Judas
Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ.
The service of resurrection is at 11pm on the Saturday. Everybody, very
formally dressed, goes to church with an unlit candle and the sermon is held
to the accompaniment of fire-crackers. The priest proclaims that Christ has
risen with the words 'thefte lavete fos' or 'come and take the light'. The
congregation now light candles and everyone greets each other with the
phrase 'Christos anesti', 'Christ has risen', to which the other answers
'alithos anesti', 'indeed he has risen'.
There will be a church service at eleven on Sunday morning after which the
celebrations begin. The children go around cracking and winning colored
eggs, if your egg cracks then you lose it and the child with the unbroken
egg gets it. At lunchtime picnics and family gatherings are held
everywhere, lambs are roasted on the spit and wine flows freely.
In the villages Easter is an all-village affair apart from being a big
holiday. On such days after Mass the priest stands at the church door with
the Cross and everyone leaving kisses the Cross then shakes and takes the
hand of the person in front, thus forming a large circle in the church yard
which symbolizes the renewal of friendship with one another. After this,
friends and relations are invited to the villagers' homes where they sit
down together, eating and drinking until late in the afternoon.
On Easter Sunday the fun starts which lasts until Tuesday. There are various
games, dances and jokes. The young people celebrate by hanging up souses, or
swings. For this purpose young men and girls hang ropes from trees and while
the girls swing, they all sing songs, love songs or teasing songs called
tchatismata. These songs are made up at every festive occasion and there are
even professionals who sing them. The characteristic of the tchatismata is
that someone gets up and starts by opening the subject in reciting praises
for the host, something to tease a friend, or a love song for a girl. If he
can, the one who has been made the subject of the song gets up and replies
by reciting his views on whatever has just been said. More usually, however,
there are two people singing the tchatismata by making up the song as they
go along, one making up the first few lines, the other the next few and so
on. In the old village way of life this would have been one of the few times
during the year when young men and women would have been left alone
together.
The Easter celebrations last many days. So please bear in mind that shops
and petrol stations etc are likely to be closed from the 21st April until
the 25th and again from the 29th until the 1st May.