EASTER TRADITIONS IN CYPRUS

Easter is the greatest holiday in the Orthodox Church. It is fixed according to the moon -
that is to say, it is always celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon of the
spring equinox. To celebrate Easter everything should look clean and new, so houses
 are cleaned, painted or white-washed, and new clothes are a "must", especially new shoes.
Holy Week is dedicated to church-going and to baking, etc.

At seaside places preparations for Palm Sunday can be seen from the previous Friday.
In the coffee shops, fishermen sit and plait intricate "vaynes" ~ palm-leaf flower holders ~
which when finished, resemble little swallows' nests perched on sticks. The fishermen sell
 these and the young children fill them with flowers and take them to church on Palm Sunday
 when they follow the icon of Christ around the church in a procession commemorating
 Christ's entry into Jerusalem. The older boys hold large palm leaves.
Olive leaves are put into pillow-case-like sacks which are taken to church; there they are
kept for forty days after which they can be used for incense burning.
From now on there are church services morning, afternoon and evening.

On Thursday most women do their Easter baking of "flaounes", a kind of cheese cake
 found in Cyprus, made of shortcrust with a cheese, egg and mint filling, formed
 into triangular and square shapes.
"Koulouria"  are baked with milk, spices and a little sugar and "Tyropittes" ~
loaves with small pieces of cheese added and rolled in sesame seeds.
Eggs are dyed as well. Traditionally they are dyed red with a special root called "rizari",
 that is sold in bundles at the market during these days. They are also
dyed yellow; for this purpose the yellow marguerites that cover the waysides
and fields during April are used.
However, in the towns you can buy small packets of different colored dyes
 from your grocer. Some dye their eggs in a more artistic way by tying the
marguerites onto the eggs with a piece of muslin  before boiling them
in a color. The end product is most effective.

Good Friday  begins with everyone taking flowers to church so that the
young girls can decorate the "Epitafios" ~ Holy Sepulchre.  This, in our church,
is a four-postured litter with a canopy in which the icon of Christ
is laid in state. The whole structure is completely decorated with flowers,
 a job that takes the greater part of Good Friday morning.

At lunchtime the traditional "Faki Xidati" - vinegar and lentil soup - is eaten,
containing vinegar because it is said that when Christ asked for water
on his way to Calgary He was given vinegar instead.

From early afternoon you will see streams of cars and pedestrians going
from church to church to pay their last respects to Christ - and to compare
 the decoration of their own parish "Epitafios" with that of the others.

In the meantime, all the streets along which the "Epitafios" will pass in the solemn
 procession later that night are being decorated with colored  lights.
The procession starts after the evening service with the priests
preceding, then the Scouts or young men carrying the litter of Christ and then
the choir, singing hymns. The whole congregation follows, and children
light sparklers on the way. Fireworks are lit from the balconies
while the procession moves around its parish boundaries and
ends up at the church again.

Saturday is a quiet day, although there is a sermon towards lunchtime
 during which the church doors are banged and candleholders shaken, when the
 news is brought that Christ is no longer in His grave.

The real sermon of resurrection is at about midnight. Everybody goes to
 church with a candle and the sermon is held to the accompaniment
 of fire-crackers. A big bonfire is lit in the church yard.
When the priest proclaims that "Christ has risen", all candles are lit and
everyone greets everyone else with "Christos anesti" ~Christ has risen,
to which the other  answers "Alithos anesti"  ~ Indeed He has risen.

 On Sunday morning most people who have not taken Holy Communion
during the Holy Week take it now and afterwards they go home,
where red eggs are cracked,  flaounes eaten and the fast broken.
The children go around cracking and winning colored eggs, for if
your egg cracks then you lose it and the child with the unbroken
egg gets it.  At lunchtime picnics and family gatherings are held everywhere;
 lamps are roasted on the spit and wine flows freely.

In the villages, Easter is an all-village affair apart from being a big holiday.
On such days after Mass,  the priest stands at the church door with the Cross and
everyone leaving kisses the Cross, then shakes-and takes - the hand
 of the person in front, thus forming a large circle in the church yard
which symbolizes  the renewal of friendship with one another. After this, all
friends and relations, but especially people from other towns or villages, are
invited to the villagers' homes where they sit down together, eating and drinking
 until late in the afternoon.

In many villages it is also the custom on Easter Sunday and Monday
for everyone to have lunch in the church yard and each family
brings its food and wine and everybody eats at long tables
made out of stands and long wooden planks. After lunch there are
various games, dances and jokes. So all old quarrels
 are forgotten. The young people celebrate by hanging up
"souses" - swings. For this purpose young men and girls hang ropes
 from trees and  while the girls swing, they al sing gay songs or love
songs, or teasing songs called "Tchatismata" -rhymes -
These rhymes are made up at every festive occasion and there are
 even professionals who sing them. The characteristic of the "tchatismata"
 is that someone get up and starts by opening the subject in
reciting praises for the host, something to tease a friend, or a love song
for a girl. If he can, the one who has been made the subject of the thyme,
 gets up and replies by reciting his views on whatever has just been said.
 More usually, however, there are two people singing the
"tchatismata" by making up the rhyme as they go along, one making up the first
few lines, the other the next few and so on.

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