Greek Easter is a season, not a day. Clean Monday- the beginning of Lent- starts the long build-up from the the season of naked branches to the season of leaves the size of children's hands. The last of the apples, a little withered, give way to the first strawberries, as nature illustrates the spiritual rebirth. The most solemn week of the Christian calendar is, in truth, brimming with joyous anticipation.
Palm Sunday brings the welcome taste of fish- those who have been observing the Orthodox fast have had nothing of creatures with blood- no meat, dairy, eggs, or fish, eating only seafoods, vegetables, olives, oil and bread.
Holy week, the fast resumes, with many from Wednesday on taking no oil, and some from Good Friday fasting altogether. Of course, alongside the fast, joyous preparations begin.
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| Tsoureki fresh this morning at our neighborhood bakery "Thoma" |
The Easter treat is tsoureki- a sweet, eggy bread rich with butter- not unlike challah or babka or kulich. Depending on the region and the household, it will be flavored various ways- mahlepi, the inner seed kenel of the pit of a certain cherry (like noix from the pits of apricots) is classic- it is said to taste like cherries and bitter almond, but to me it smells much more mysterious- and a little musty- like incense. Others use mastika, the dried resin of a wild pistachio tree that grows only on the island of Chios (the source of our verb masticate)- it looks like a crystal and tastes like a forest.
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| Clockwise from 7 o'clock- mahlepi, cardamon, and rocks of mastika. |
You can buy great tsoureki, but then your house will not be filled with the scent of Easter. The dough is satisfying to knead and fun to braid and twist into shapes. A child, covered with flour and standing on a chair next to a patient grandmother, can usually be called on to help with this. Tsoureki bake astonishingly quickly- a moment too long and they are dry. Tsoureki should be moist and pull apart into long strands, the mark of thorough kneading. I would gladly share a recipe with you, but I am still searching for the right one.
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| Ingredients for tsoureki, including a special flour |
The same day, commemorating the crucifixion, we dye eggs truly deep blood red- a color you can only buy in markets that sell things to Orthodox communities. No amount of food coloring will get the effect. The eggs will be polished lightly with oil, and whatever are not braided into the tsourekia will be displayed on the table, to be brought to Church for the resurrection on Saturday night. The dye needs lots of vinegar- simmering with the dye it fills the air. Like the smell of tsoureki baking, you can tell it's Easter with your eyes closed.
Good Friday on an island must be wonderful- friends tell me that when they were girls they would gather the day before to decorate the Epitaphio with flowers. I don't know who prepares the Epitaphio in the city but, they are covered too, flowers woven all over the frame and canopy. In the evening, people gather at every church to follow the epitaphio though the streets in a procession. All along the way people come out onto their balconies with candles. Sometimes two processions meet- In Thessaloniki, the Epitaphia of Grigoriou Palama and Agia Sophia meet at the intersection of Agias sophias and Tsimiski. The altar boys are little guys; they get bored waiting- once two of them ended up on the ground, horsing around in their elaborate robes. The nun was cross.
The next day is madness- all last minute gift shopping and hair salons, mageiritsa cooking, and buying lambadas- candles to receive the light of the resurrection. What's mageiritsa? You'll probably know there is usually a whole lamb (or goat) roast on the spit for Easter Sunday. the organs are wrapped into tight bundles with the scrubbed-clean entrails to make this traditional Easter Soup- these bundles simmered in an egg-lemon broth green with fresh herbs. This is the soup to break the fast after the resurrection.
Sometime after 11, the churches and and grounds and streets around them fill. We're all dressed up, and some of us not necessarily modestly (after church is mageiritsa, and after mageiritsa- bouzoukia). Around midnight the bells toll and the light of the resurrection spreads from the church through the crowd, the scent of flames and melting beeswax fill the air as one candle lights another, a joyous moment.
Technically it's not the mageiritsa that breaks the fast- that is the first meal. But the first thing we eat? The eggs- we have all brought red eggs from our homes. and not just any red eggs- everyone has chosen their own egg, the one they think has the best chances against the other eggs- we crack them against one another, end to end, the aim that your egg stays intact. And now it's mageiritsa, the whole family around the table. No one will be in bed before 1:30 or 2 tonight, not even the children, and many of us will not go to bed before the sun rises on Easter morning.
More on Easter:
Imam Biyaldi- perfect for Holy Week
Marble Eggs from onion skins
Ricotta Pie Esperdy (for a taste of Easter in Manhattan)
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