Fiesta!

The biggest church fiesta on Poros actually takes place not on the island but across on the mainland.  Its the celebration of the Madonna of Mercy,  Agia Eleousa.

Behind Plaka beach is a small church that you're barely aware of except on its fiesta days June 3 and 4.  Everybody, but everybody from Poros, Galatas and surrounding villages visits, usually on the eve of the actual date, to light a candle, listen to a little of the service and then walk up the road to inspect the market stalls.  

Agia Eleousa decked out in its 'Sunday best'

The church is so small that the congragation must stand outside. There's a line to buy candles to light and leave in the containers of sand.  After the candle rite, the faithful approach the decorated icon of the Virgin, cross themselves, kiss the icon and back away.  Some stay to listen to the service before moving on and leaving room for newcomers.

At the finish the Priest hands out small cubes of Holy Bread which you receive and then many kiss his hand.   I have only done this once and I got a strange look from the priest who obviously knew I was a foreigner and probably doubted my faith.  Rightly so.  I grabbed the bread and moved away fast.

Then there are many many loaves of sweet bread which are sliced into big chunks.  This is what I liked, when I still ate bread.  Its sweet and a bit spicy, every loaf different, depending on the housewife or baker.  You take a hunk, or two and wander off  munching contentedly. 

   

In line for candle lighting

After the formalities its time for shopping therapy.  The road outside is lined with stalls selling underwear, toys, cheap jewellery, knick-knacks and clothes.  The food stalls sell grilled corn, fried dumplings with honey or nutella, and pastelli, bars of sesame seeds and honey.

It's a tradition to buy knickers but I wasn't impressed by them this year.  K bought a few pairs of boxer shorts and we all bought sox.  6 pairs for 6 euros.  

The biggest attraction for the men.

Roast pig.  A whole pig is on the bench and you chose the piece you want which is hacked off and wrapped in grease proof paper to take home.  15 euros a kilo.

These market stalls are getting fewer and fewer.  There used to be at least half a dozen pork sellers but this year it was just this one.  The men in days gone by would spend an hour walking up and down the road, inspecting and discussing the pig situation before deciding which seller to buy from and which piece to have chopped up for them.

This year K was not at all impressed by the roast pork.  First of all it wasn't cooked on the spit but in the oven and there was far too much fat.  He didn't buy any but many did. The seller was a busy pork peddler.

The easiest way to get to the Panagyri, fiesta, is by taxi boat

I hate these little boats.  I have difficulty getting in and out of them without assistance.  Going was ok.  There was a young chap to hold the 'old lady's' hand and help her down.  Coming back there was no help.  I misjudged the height of the step and literally tumbled into the damn boat.  Fortunately I fell 'in'  onto the lino-ed floor and not 'out' into the sea and wasn't hurt.  Well, my pride was but hell, it's not the first time I've fallen in public, though I haven't done it for a long time .  At least now I can get up by myself and don't need a rugby team to grab hold of me and drag me upright.

Getting off the boat

Easy if you're a youngster

Look who we met there

The famous Bitouni sisters

Two of our grand-daughters

We met the other grand-daughter too wandering around the stalls with friends and 20 euros burning in her pocket, but she's camera shy.

K loves occasions like this .  He literally knows everyone and makes slow progress to the church and up the road as he stops every few metres to greet friends, family and acquaintances he hasn't seen since the last fiesta.

For those who really know how to celebrate a fiesta there are chairs and tables set out on the sands of the nearby beach and a live orchestra and singers who belt out traditional eastern Greek sounds till dawn. The taverna sells cans of beer, whiskey, roast pork served on baking paper, Greek salad, tzatziki with plastic knives and forks. Hundreds sit down to listen to the music and dance. I did it once, maybe twice.  You really have to be Greek to enjoy this sort of entertainment.

All a lot of fun for some.  I don't think I'll be going next year.

Celebrating Again?

 Yup, here we go again.  One of the grand-daughters became a godmother last weekend.  She and another girl baptised, or the Priest did, a bouncing baby girl.  As Godmother she could invite her family to the ceremony and so it was another family get-together.

Here are the 2 godmothers reading the ....Apostles Creed, I believe it is called in English.  That prayer that begins

I believe  in God, the Father Almighty......

Then they promise to do all they can to make sure the babe will be a devoted member of the Orthodox church.

The child is dunked 3 times into the font, covered with olive oil, the best from this year's family olive harvest, and has 3 pieces of hair cut off. 

This little babe is one of the few that didn't wail when she was dunked.  Most babies cry throughout the ceremony.

She was baptised Evangelia-Pavlina,  Evelina for short

Once all that oil is wiped off with a special cloth she is 

 dressed again in the new baptismal clothes bought specially by the Godmothers. The Priest puts on her gold cross, also bought by the Godmothers. 

They then proceed around the font 3 times 'in an act of rejoicing with the angels of heaven' says Mr Google 

Before Evelina was handed back to her mother my grand-daughter, holding Evelina, was lifted into the air by her siblings and told they'd keep her up there if she didn't promise them a gift.  

After 'a bottle of beer', 'a vow to wash all their dishes for a month', 'free tickets on the car ferry to Galatas' didn't make the grade they finally let her down after she agreed to buy them tickets to New Zealand.  That's going to be an expensive baptism for her!

Both Godmothers will take Evelina to church for the next 3 Sundays to take communion and then their duties are buying gifts for her on Name Days, Birthday, Xmas and Easter.

The party afterwards took place on the beach.

We changed into more casual clothes, drank beer and ate souvlaki till a chill evening wind made me move K and head home.

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The beach wasn't deserted but it was mostly ours.  The sun came and went.  Small children and dogs went swimming.

When my girls were baptized, on Poros, my mother-in-law took the cloth that held the oily baby down to the sea and washed it there. That tradition has died out.  We went back to Piraeus the next week so my girls weren't taken for communion. Their heathen mother wasn't prepared to go that far.

They've grown up into awesome adults anyway.

Easter Saturday-Night Light

This is our Holy Light which has come all the way from Jerusalem

Or it 'was' our light.  The flame went out a few days ago.

The Holy Light is a miracle which is supposed to take place at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on the eve of the Orthodox  easter celebration.  

The church says that ' a beam of blue light radiates from the tomb of Jesus creating a fiery pillar.'  A lone priest, actually the Patriarch of Jerusalem, enters the tomb (having been searched to make sure he hasn't got a lighter hidden anywhere) lights a bundle of 33 candles from the 'fiery blue pillar' and emerges to light the candles of the thousands of faithful waiting outside.  The light is then transported to Greece and to every church in the country in time for the midnight mass of ressurection. 

Whether the lighting of the candles in the tomb is miraculous or not doesn't matter.  It's an important part of the Easter tradition here.

The light is brought to Greece on a special flight and is given the honours of a Head of State.  It is also transported to other Orthodox countries in the Balkans.  In Greece it is flown from Athens to major cities and islands and from there to every church in every corner of Greece.

  The Light is brought to Poros by fast motor launch.  At the harbour it is handed over to the Mayor and several small boys, including my grandson, and the light is transported to the 4 big churches which hold a midnight mass and over to the nearby mainland villages and their churches.

Just before midnight the priest of each church emerges with candles lit from the Holy Light. The light goes from candle to candle through the crowd, a white candle tonight or a decorated candle for the children, till the churchyard and beyond is lit up with the flames of these small 'torches'.

At midnight the priest  announces 'Christ is Risen' and all hell breaks loose.

Heaven and hell. 

Church bells ring out from the four churches, ships horns toot, and firecrackers send many scattering to safety. The sky is lit up with dazzling fireworks and the celebrations begin.

The Light is taken home to make a sign of the cross above the door and then is left to burn, as long as it burns.

We didn't go down to the midnight service this year so one daughter brought us  the light in a lantern  the next day.

The light is a wick in a small bowl of oil, which unfortunately tipped over on a corner, and has stained her car seat.  The car has been anointed permanently in  holy oil. She should be safe driving it but beware any passenger wearing white trew 😁

You'd think it would have kept us safe from spirits and misfortune at least while it was still burning. But our ghost returned.

Exactly four years ago, after the Easter feast, he startled our house guests by turning on the outside radio in the wee hours and scared the living daylights out of my nephew who had to go out in the dark, black night and turn it off. Two  grapefruit fell unexpectedly and loudly from the tree as he passed it by, sending him racing back inside as fast as a road runner.

This year, after the Easter feast, our ghost turned that same radio on at 4am, just as it started to rain.  K had to go out this time  with cold, wet, bare feet and turn it off. 

I've tried to appease him, the ghost that is, by offering him a glass of wine.

K needed more than one glass to appease him.

Lagana with Tahini

 This turned out to be scrumptious.  One step up from the usual flatbread

Warning...Warning

NOT traditional

Flatbread with cheese on top and ouzo and tahini in the dough

The dough rose quite a lot even though I flattened it out.  It tasted like a cheese scone to me and I cut it into triangles, split it in the middle and slathered it in butter and honey.  A delicious cheese scone with honey

Ingredients -

300 grams flour 

100 grams fine semolina 

1 dessertspoon dried yeast 

1 tbsp tahini 

1 shot glass of ouzo or some other alcohol, whiskey perhaps?

Oil about one shot glass

Tsp salt 

About a mug of water for mixing  

Make a nice soft dough, leave to rise for about an hour.  Flatten out into an oval shape. Brush with oil and top with grated cheese.

Bake about 20 minutes in a hot oven till golden brown

Other Possible Toppings -

Sliced onion 

Chopped olives 

Rosemary 

Oregano 

Chopped sun dried tomatoes

Little Lazarus-es

 Lazarakia.  Little Lazaruses

They are small sweet, raisin bread made in Greece on Lazarus Saturday, the Saturday before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.  They are baked to celebrate the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  

The small loaves are shaped like a man wrapped in a shroud with cloves for eyes.  The recipe has loads of spices, mastiha, mahklepi, cinnamon, cloves and I put in a little cardamon and ginger as well.  The bread follows the fasting rules, no eggs, butter or milk.

This is the first time I have made them.  A few years ago the grandaughters made small paper dolls representing   Lazarus but I've only recently heard of these sweet man-shaped buns.   On some islands they are stuffed with nuts and raisins.  I simply added raisins to the mix.  A big spoon of marmalade would also give a special taste.  And a glaze of honey and oil, olive oil.

In many places they can be found in the local bakery.  I doubt if ours will have fresh hot Lazarakia and I'm not going down to the harbour to find out.

It is finally raining.  Good steady rain which the olive trees and grape vines will be slurping up.  My young tomato plants and pumpkin seedlings will be loving it too.

Wikipedia says that 'one of the Lazarakia should be kept in the home for the entire years and either eaten the following year (?) or thrown to the fish'.

Before 

And after. 

In days gone by. The paper Lazarakia

These girls are now towering teenagers

If you pull the legs the arms go up and down

End of the Walk

 The little church which I walk to most days

Dedicated to Saint John, Agio Yianni.  Has a special service every year around 24 September but otherwise is only used for a baptism or a special service of thanks or a request for someone's good health

The Priest emerges from behind the curtain to conduct the service. Women are not allowed back there.

The church is always open and sometimes we go in and light the little olive oil lamp, a glass of oil with a floating wick, leave a few coins in the money box, take and light a candle

Anyone may, and does, walk in and light a candle.

See the glass on the right which has a layer of oil on the top. This is the simple lamp.  The oil can be topped up from a bottle on the window ledge behind.  Sometimes we take a small bottle of oil and leave it there.  Also you'll find a box of wicks there in case it needs replacing, incense and charcoal. 

The charcoal pieces are placed in a small burner, the incense on top.  The charcoal is set alight and if you're so inclined you can wave it around and say a prayer

The walls are covered in icons of various saints donated by the faithful

Church of Saint John

One of two or three on the island dedicated to the Saint