(Mitsos kanis souvla)
A drizzling
rain has descended on the island. We say it each year: when the first tourists
arrive, there will be rain. Easter also has a reputation for attracting bad
weather, although I can’t remember a single Easter Party that was ever spoilt
by rain. Just as they have this year, weather reports always announce rain for
Easter, even though the heavens on the day itself may decide otherwise and we
may yet see the sun contribute to the festivities. I can only remember one occasion
when the forecast actually was for good weather and that was last year when
Easter Sunday was as hot as a day in a heat wave.
This week
in Greece is called Holy Week as we approach the end of Lent. Today, on Maundy
Thursday all officials are on holiday, so if you want to get something from the
municipal cooperative shop you will find the door closed. Today the women will
colour the eggs red and they will bake Easter bread (tsoereki). In Greece all eggs will be
painted with the symbolic blood of Jesus Christ, although you may see other
coloured eggs appear too, probably the influence of other countries. Men will
be busy slaughtering lambs, for the traditional dish to be served on Easter
Sunday. Passing through the streets you may already be seeing skinned lambs
hanging under a roof. On Sunday those poor animals will all end up above the
fire for a souvla
(lamb on an spit) or stuffed in the oven.
I don’t
live in the village so I am spared the nightmare of the church bells this week.
During the Holy Week the bells toll for every step made by the priests; but even
worse is the electronic bellman, the speakers all over the village, that do not
allow any liturgical service to go unnoticed. Living in the village you don’t actually
have to go to church in order to attend a mass.
Tomorrow it
will be Good Friday which is kind of a day of mourning in Greece: according to
the Orthodox Church one should mourn the crucifixion of Jesus. Women will hurry
to the churches in order to decorate all shrines with flowers. Flowers will be
easy to gather as the island looks like a great flower paradise right now.
Although I wonder if picking flowers in the rain is such a nice job. In the
evening a procession will pass through the village with a symbolic bier of Jesus, it too is covered with flowers. I grew up
between the fields of flowers in Holland and as a child each year I saw the
great flower processions and I have to say: the Greek flower decorations always
make me a bit homesick for the time when I was a child wondering how on earth
could they gather so much flowers.
Here on the
island you can also find tulips and hyacinths. But they don’t smell as strong
as they used to in Holland. And I do hope that I will never see a bier decorated
with tulips, because that will mean that they will have picked bare one of the
very rare fields. You know, there are even people who pick very rare orchids:
barbarians. Although I do not think they take them to cover the bier of Jesus
or to decorate churches; they probably will end up in a herbarium.
Saturday is
the day for preparations: for the food on Sunday, for the midnight mass and for
the traditional soup that is served after the midnight mass. This Mayiritsa or Easter Soup is prepared with the
offal of the slaughtered lamb. I do not like soup in general, and especially
not this pretty sour soup often thickened with an egg-lemon paste (avgolemono). I had it once and I prefer not to
taste it again. I am waiting for the food on Sunday, for when in the early
hours the fires are lit for the souvla and the ovens warmed for the stuffed
lamb. Then the air will be pregnant with the scent of roasted lamb and full of
the cheerful voices of the Greeks celebrating Easter, I await the nice taste of
a sweet and spiced Easter lamb.
Easter is
traditionally celebrated with lots of family and friends. Often everybody
brings a dish and I will also be attending such an Easter Party. But for days now
I have been wondering what food I will make to bring. The closer Easter comes,
the emptier the shops are. Are the Greeks buying so much stuff?
Greeks
prefer to eat according to the season: cabbages in the winter, aubergines in
the summer. In autumn you can eat the last tomatoes or the first fresh spinach.
In late spring it’s different. Winter vegetables are gone and the fields are
ploughed to make room for the summer vegetables. The result is that there are
not so many vegetables available in the shops and the ones that are for sale wilt
within the day. This is a time when I really long for the well-stocked supermarkets
in Holland that sell all kind of vegetables all year round.
I cannot
make wild asparagus. I have been eating them for weeks and now they’ve stop
making new stems and I don’t believe that the rains of today will revive them.
So the choice is between mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, or if I am lucky,
fresh broad beans. Even though I have already been eating these vegetables for
weeks, at least I have a choice. I’m probably just a bit sulky because of a day
of rain and the weather forecast that, yet again, threatens us with a wet
Easter Sunday.
Kalo Paska
(with
thanks to Mary)
© Smitaki
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