Saturday

 Saturday..... almost done

The ceremony of the Holy Fire took place again without incident. The Light is on its way from Jerusalem in the Presidential plane. All is well with the Greek Orthodox world. Every home will have a candle lit from the sacred flame which appears 'miraculously' every Easter in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Holy Land. 

K cut up all the innards of the Easter lamb, heart, kidney, lungs, liver, spleen, intestines and I have started the mageritsa. This is the soup made from innards, lettuce, dill and rice, thickened with egg and lemon juice. 

There's just the midnight service to attend, or maybe just watch on TV. There are live broadcasts from the Cathedral in Athens and from the Patriarchal Cathedral in Konstantinople (Istanbul to you). 

Once 'Christ is Risen' there will be fireworks, much kissing of cheeks and a rush home to end the Lenten fast with family and friends, eating the Easter soup, cracking red eggs and quaffing a few glasses of wine

First though we have to refresh the cross in the doorway protecting our household from the evil eye

Our distant neighbours across the ravine have gathered from Athens for the Easter holiday.  They've been celebrating, loudly, from early afternoon . 

7pm and it's gone quiet. They must be sleeping it off. I hope they don't go down for the midnight mass and return at 2am refreshed and ready to continue an all night revel

So everyone

Happy Orthodox Easter

Happy Easter celebrations to our Serbian Orthodox family in NZ

And keep safe kiwis!!  Our NZ family are in the eye of Cyclone Vaianu