ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ !!!
( Christos is risen)
This is a wish we say every day, when we see someone, from the Resurrection of Jesus till Whitsun (Pentikosti, Πεντηκοστή).
I promised to show you how is a Greek Orthodox Easter (Pascha).
Well, it begins with the Resurrection on Holy Saturday night.
Unfortunatly we couldn't stay till the end of the liturgy because the girls were very tired and very hungry.
We came home at 12:30 am.
After 15 minutes my sister's family and my parents arrived to celebrate all together the Resurrection at my home.
We made a cross at our front door with the Holy Light (this light comes from Jerousalim, from the Holy Grave of Jesus).
Then i put the Light in my oil lamp.
We keep the Holy Light on at least for fifty days till Pentikosti.
The table and the food were ready and our appetite, too.
We bumped our eggs, we said "Christos Anesti" and we started eating.
Our first meal with meat after forty eight days of fasting.
The first dish was a soup that we call "magiritsa" (μαγειρίτσα).
The original magiritsa is with the entrails of the lamb (liver, spleen, etc).
My father made the original recipe.
But the kids don't like the original version so i put the meat of the lamb's ribes (without bones and fat), rice, fresh onions, dill, olive oil, salt and pepper.
It's not the original but it's a great soup.
The second dish was lamb with potatoes in the oven.
Of course we had Greek salad, salami and cheese (Cretan graviera).
Our guests left at 2:30 am, I put the rest of the family to sleep and i did the cleaning.
I went to bed at 4:00 am.
I woke up at 8:00 am.
My hubby, my brother-in-law (my sister's hubby) and my father went down to the garden at 8:30 am to set the lamb on the spit and they started the spitting.
The impale lamb is a symbol of the Crucifixion.
Jesus, the Holy Lamb, crucified on the Cross and, when he died, the soldiers didn't break his arms and legs like they did with the two thieves. (See the icon of the Crucifixion in my previous post).
So we put the lamb on the spit without breaking its bones.
At 11:00 am it was the time for an award for the "grillers" (and for us, too).
A pre-lunch meal.
We had salad, ham, cheese, eggs, seftalies, sausages and kokoretsi.
From the morning till lunch (at 1:30 pm) a lot of people stopped by our home (to be exact by our garden) to say "Christos Anesti" and have a glass of wine and a snack.
My parents in law, my sister's parents in law, my hubby's brothers and a few more.
The weather was great and the kids made a few rides with their bikes.
Antonia loved to ride her father's motorcycle.
Of course we had a lot of dancing, too.
After all, dance is in our blood.
My father dances the best zeibekiko i've ever seen.
And Olga try to follow his footsteps.
Here is me, my mother in law, my mother and my sister.
And me and my sister dance hasapiko (for a video from our dance see Marina's blog http://marinaslifefamily.blogspot.com/ ).
We set the table for lunch at an open space under our homes, next to the garden.
At the festive table were my family, my sister's family and my parents.
We had for lunch, except the lamb, farm salad, Russian salad, Greek salad, green salad, fried potatoes, salami, cheese (feta and kaseri), eggs and toasted bread on the grill.
And for dessert we had chocolate mousse (made by me), cheesecake (made by my sister Marina) and giaourtopita (made by my mother in law).
We finished our lunch at 5:00 pm, we took a bath and the rest of the day we were trying to recover from the food and the weariness.
to see other places of our world.
