Easter in Corfu

The whole of nature is dressed in green and fragrant with the scent of blossom, the spectacle in the streets and squares is unique. Orthodox customs meet Venetian traditions and feelings soar to the sound of brass bands and pottery smashing to the ground in the Spianada. Even if you spend Easter in Corfu just once, you will truly feel what genuine religious grandeur really means.

Easter Week begins with the Palm unday procession of the relics of St Spyridon, in commemoration of a miracle he performed in 1630, saving the city from the plague. The procession starts from "t'Agiou" church at I I am and follows the line once formed by the old city walls. At noon, the traditional "stakofisi" appears on tables in homes and tavernas: this dish, its English origin reflected in its name (=stockfish), is a stew of dried fish (usually cod) with potatoes, garlic, pepper and lemon. Holy Week services are observed with profound reverence in all village churches as well as in the town. Some churches have excellent Byzantine choirs: Ai Giannis at Plokada t'Agiou, the monastery of St Euphemia at Mon Repos, the Platytera at Mantouki, Agioi Theodoroi at Garitsa, and the Mitropoli (Cathedral). On Holy Wednesday the Municipal Choir gives its customary concert of ecclesiastical music at the Municipal Theatre in town.

On Holy Thursday in some villages the peasant women take yarns to church with them and braid ribbons during the long hours of the liturgy, while in the Duomo (the Catholic Cathedral) the congregation light twelve candles, blowing them out one by one after each gospel. In town, on Good Friday, you don't know which Epitafios (a symbolic bier, decorated with flowers and bearing an embroidered image of Christ in the tomb) to watch first. From 2 pm when the churches of the Spiliotissa and the Pontokrotor bring out their epitafios until 10 pm when the epitafios from the Mitropoli appears, dozens of processions fill the streets, accompanied by bands. The Old Philharmonic (the red band) plays Albinoni s Adagio, the "Mantzaros" (the blue band) plays Verdi's Funeral March, and the "Kapodistrios" band plays Marianis Sventura and Chopin's Marche Funebre. On Holy Saturday the city wakes early. At 6 am the church of Panogio ton Xenon stages a recreation of the earthquake that, according to the Scriptures, followed the first resurrection. Next, at 9 am, comes the Procession of St. Spyridon, displaying both the relics of the saint and the epitafios of "his" church and accompanied by bands playing Michellis Calde Lacrime, Faccio's Hamlet and the Funeral March from Beethoven's Eroica. The custom dates back to the Venetian period, when processions were banned, save for the relics of the saint. Two hours later, at I I am, mourning gives way to mirth, and the music is replaced by the noise of breaking pottery. With the First Resurrection comes the revival of the custom of botides: throwing narrow pottery jars off balconies.

Some say that this custom is of Venetian origin (the Venetians used to throw out old objects on New Year's Day so that the New Year would bring them new ones), and others that it is pagan (the breaking of jars symbolises the welcoming of spring and the new crop that will be gathered into new jars). Then the bands take to the streets again, playing a cheerful march entitled "Greeks, fear not", and the people pour into the Pinia (Vrachlioti Square) for the custom of mastela: throwing a coin into a barrel set up for the purpose. When the bells ring in the Resurrection, someone is bound to jump in to harvest the bounty. On Holy Saturday evening the town celebrates the Resurrection twice: first at the Catholic Cathedral and then at the church of Agia Paraskevi at the Upper Square bandstand. Drum rolls, fireworks and brass bands create a festive atmosphere, while thousands of people watch the show from the square, the adjacent streets and the balconies. The Easter supper that night includes tsilichourda (the traditional Easter soup), red eggs, fogatses (a Venetian-style brioche) and kolompines (Easter rolls in the shape of doves made from leftover bits of dough from the fogatses), which are decorated with a red egg and dyed chicken feathers.

On Easter Sunday, at 7 am, there is a procession of the icon of the Resurrection at every church in town. At noon comes the traditional spit-roast lamb, accompanied by spit-roast intestines (chordes) and a flurry of traditional Easter wishes. Some people like to keep their lamb for Easter Monday, and dine instead on egg/lemon soup, but everyone cracks red eggs with his neighbours, keeping the shells in the house for luck or scattering them on the fields to bring a good harvest.

Do not Forget:
If you want to spend Easter in Corfu, you have to book well ahead both your accommodation and even your restaurant table. If you plan to watch any of the Holy Week activities (the Epitafios procession, the Resurrection or the botides on Holy Saturday morning), then be sure to arrive early - the crowds are enormous and there is very little parking. Also remember that the timetable is strictly adhered to, so if you want to be there to see the smashing of the pots then you have to be, at I I am exactly, at one of the following points: Upper or Lower Square, Dimarcheiou Square, Plakada t'Agiou, the corner of Palaiologou and Nik.Theotoki St., the corner of M.Theotoki and N.Theotoki St., Porta Remounda-Guilford Street.