A VERY SPECIAL EASTER CELEBRATION
By the time it gets to Easter on the island of Crete, fasting locals in Chania are raring for a feast. But as Guy Dimond discovered, the city’s tavernas are mostly closed – unless you have a personal invitation
hungry traveller.
It was late evening. A driver pulled alongside our car, gesturing to roll down the window. His face looked spooky, half-lit by a flickering candle held in his far hand. “Get into Chania soon or you’ll miss it,” he uttered, then drove off, dripping candle still in hand. In the distance, we could hear fireworks exploding.
It wasn’t just any flame he held. Candle to candle, this ancient flame had been carried from Jerusalem in the annual ‘holy fire’ ceremony that symbolises peace, eternity and renewal, and is traditionally spread to light every church in Greece on Easter Saturday.
It was the last day of Lent, and it was nearly time for Greeks to break 40 days of austerity and fasting. In Chania, in western Crete, shops and tavernas were closed, traffic silenced. We joined the crowds walking to mass, bearing lit candles. Strangers greeted each other, and us, with “Christos anesti” (Christ has risen), to which the correct response is “Alithos anesti” (truly he has risen).
At 11pm, we were just in time to catch the final hymns at Agios Nikolaos, one of two medieval Orthodox churches in Chania’s Old Town. The packed square outside the church reverberated with voices raised in Byzantine song.
After visiting the church and lighting candles, Greeks slowly headed home to break the fast with magiritsa, a soup of lamb offal, onions, rice and avgolemono (egg-lemon sauce). For them, the feasting had begun; but for us visitors the feast came the next day.
A FINE TIME TO VISIT