Red hard boiled eggs

Another Easter custom is to dye eggs red on Good Thursday and crack them on Easter. The color symbolizes Christ's blood. The person whose egg is the last one standing uncracked on the table is supposed to be lucky.

Do you notice anything unusual on the picture?

Easter candle

Remember the holy light?
It is a rather new custom to decorate the candles of the children (and children at heart) using toys or flowers.

The most amazing candles I have ever seen are for sure these two! Made especially for the two lucky girls by their (and our) good friend (more info and creations here).

Now ovelias

Lamb barbeque as promised. Christ Is risen! Guten Apetit!

Δεύτε λάβετε φώς (Come and get the light )

As every year the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem will receive the holy light inside the holy tomb in Jerusalem, as a divine gift towards the faithful. The light will travel to Greece by airplane in time for the Resurrection Mass tonight.

The trick is to return home with your candle (λαμπάδα - lampada) still burning! There, the head of the household will mark the threshold creating a cross with the smoke from the candle.

Now divine passion

After the crussifixion mass, in the middle of the night, women in Zaganiari, and all the Orthodox parishes, decorate the epitaphios (the holy tomb) with flowers. Tomorrow it will host the body of the Lord.

Rebirth

It is this time of the year again, when we celebrate the rebirth of nature. This has been celebrated during the centuries under many names. In the 21st century, we call that in Greece Πάσχα, which I've been told that it means crossing in Hebrew. That is crossing from death to life.

I do know that greek celebrations of Πάσχα are famous, since they involve good weather, lamb barbecue, and of course dancing! I promise to upload relevant pictures in the following days, faithful to the stereotypes.

I start with the rebirth of the wild nature in Peloponnese, Easter 2006.

Tsourekia reloaded

One of the things an experimentalist physicist knows very well, is that in order for a result to be robust the outcome should be the same no matter how many times he/she repeats the experiment. This is the reason why I was eager to repeat the tsoureki-making experiment. You can see the results of the first experiment along with the experimental procedure (a.k.a. recipe) here.

Oh yeah! This is one definitely became one of my "specialties".

p.s. If you think that they look a bit large you are right. Lesson learned: 1 big tsoureki = 4 small tsourekakia

Third time's a charm

It is the third time I try to make this Easter bread/Zopf/τσουρέκι. I tried three different recipes but the most successful is by far this one.

Who wants to taste?