Easter Saturday

On the night of Easter Saturday, shortly before midnight Justine, Simon & I made our way to the lovely little church in Ambelokipi where we live.

On entering we placed our offerings in the collection plate & took a large candle which would later be lit from the Holy Flame after the service, & a number of small candles which we lit in remembrance of those we have lost.

The church was full & we stood at the back during the service with many others. When the service had finished everyone made their way out of the church & into the dark.
The priest came out with the candle lit from the flame that had originated in Jerusalem & had been flown to all parts of Greece by Olympic Airways. A number of church officials lit their candles from the flame & proceeded to pass among the assembled congregation who each in turn lit their candles from the flame.
Above is Justine & myself outside the church waiting to light our candles (I haven't gone to sleep, just got caught on camera with my eyes shut & the shadows on the wall behind us make it look like we have beehive hairdos LOL)

Below you can just see the shadowy figures in the dark outside the church as people had begun to light their candles.

As this was happening there were also canons being fired which startled us each time they fired even though we were expecting it.

After lighting the candles it is time for everyone to make their way home, endeavouring to keep their candle lit all the way so that the sign of the cross can then be made above the door of the house with the candle smoke, thus blessing the house for the following year. It is quite a moving sight seeing all the people either walking home protecting their flame with their hand or with paper lanterns some had brought with them.
Others, including ourselves, could be seen sitting in their cars with the tiny glows of candle flames just visible inside. The only difficulty was trying to get out through the small roads around the church which were crammed tight with cars all trying to go in opposing directions.
Eventually we found ourselves heading home & we each made the sign of the cross above our respective front doors & Simon ensured that this was done over Sia's (our landlady & friend) door as she was not in Zakynthos for Easter this year.

We also lit tea lights in lanterns with the flame from the candles. Simon wanted to try to keep the flame going all night & had the idea of lighting the barbecue the following day with it as we would be spit roasting the traditional whole lamb. Whether that would make our lamb any more spiritual I would strongly doubt but the flame was kept going all night & yes the barbecue was lit from it the following morning.