Holy Wednesday

Today is the day our family give the traditional easter presents to our god children.

Traditional presents are a pair of new shoes and a coloured candle decorated with ribbons for the midnight mass on Saturday.

Nowadays the candles are attached to big boxes with Power Rangers or Barbie dolls and there is usually a large chocolate egg and maybe a  sweet bread called tsoureki.

My girls were often given lacy frilly dresses and pink jackets or coats.  They wore these to the Friday and Saturday church services holding their pink sparkly candle.  Boys were given long trousers and matching jacket and a plainer blue candle.

These days the rules are far more relaxed.  Mothers and Godmothers chose the latest fashion from an online store and the child will most often have  a say as well, even the boys.  Spiderman might have been ok a few years ago but  now it is, heaven knows what.  I'm out of that loop.  We have three Godsons, all grown up.

When you're becoming a Godparent you must stick with either boys or girls, never both.  It is not done for two God children of one God parent to marry.

There are church services every evening this week, ending with a candlelight parade on Friday night and midnight mass on Saturday night.  Churches are full.  People come and go all during the evening.  Young children wander around from parent to aunt to grandparent.  Small boys scream around outside.  Men disappear outside for a chat and a cigarette.

Everyone entering the church will leave a few coins and pick up a small brown beeswax candle which they light from other candles and push into a container of  sand.  They will usually then kiss one or two of the icons and during easter file up to the front to kiss the feet of the icon of Christ, crossing themselves each time.

In days of old there was a rule that women sat on the left hand side of the church and men on the right.  This no longer applies.  Also you should not sit cross legged in church.  Why,  I'm not sure but my mother was told off by an old man once for doing so.

K goes up to the Monastery where the service takes place earlier, there is plenty of parking and he can probably find somewhere to sit.