Myths and Legends from India and Europe: March 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Easter Customs

Hello our e-twinning friends.

On Friday 26/03/2010 we are going to be on holiday for two (2) weeks, because we celebrate our easter. We are going to tell you few things about our easter.

These are customs related to the religious holiday of Easter which is the biggest celebration of the Orthodox Christians and the one richest in folklore. The word “Pascha”, Easter in Greek, stems from the Jewish “Pasah” which means “Passover”. Jewish people celebrated “Pasah” to commemorate their liberation from the Egyptians and the passage of the Red sea, while Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ the Saviour and the passage from death to life. The corresponding Greek word for “Pascha” is “Lambrí” (Brightness) because the day of the resurrection of Christ is a day full of joy and exhilaration. Easter is a moveable holiday. Its celebration falls on the first Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox. All over the country a plethora of customs and traditions are observed during the week prior to Easter (Holy Week).The preparations for the celebration of the Resurrection start on Holy Thursday. On that day housewives traditionally prepare tsourekia (sweet buns resembling brioche) and colour eggs with special red dyes. Ever since antiquity the egg symbolises the renewal of life and the red colour symbolises the blood of Christ. In the past, people used to place the first red egg on the icon stand of the house in order to cast out evil spirits. In some villages they used to mark the head and the back of small lambs with the red dye used for the dyeing of the eggs. They also used to keep one of the big round Holy Thursday loaves at the icon stand in order to protect the members of the family from

spells.Friday is the most sacred day of the Holy Week, the day of the culmination of the passion of Christ with the deposition from the cross and Christ’s burial. Because it is a day of mourning, housewives do not do any house chores, avoiding even cooking. Women and children go to church to decorate the Epitaph (Bier of Christ) with flowers they collect or buy. In the morning of Good Friday, Christ’s Burial is reenacted in church and in the evening the Epitaph procession takes place.On Easter Saturday morning, preparations start for the festive dinner of the night of the Resurrection and housewives cook “maghiritsa” (

a tripe and herbs soup). Shortly before midnight, people gather in church holding white candles which they light with the “Holy Light” distributed by the priest. When the latter chants “Christ is risen” (Christós Anesti), people exchange wishes and the so-called “Kiss of Love”. With the “Holy Light” of the candles they thrice make the sign of the cross on the door post over the front door of their houses for good luck. Then they allgather around the festively laid table, they crack red eggs and feast on the traditional “maghiritsa”.On Easter Sunday morning, in many parts of the country lamb is prepared on the spit. In other regions, the meat for the Easter table - lamb or kid - is roasted in the oven. There is a festive atmosphere everywhere and people eat and dance usually until late into the night.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Our Country, Our Town, our Area, our School

Hello our etwinning friends,
we are sending some information about us.
A different group of students worked on each page of the following presentation. The worked hard for their friends ffrom the other countries

Ourschool

View more presentations from vservou.

Our students dancing4

Our students dancing3

Our students dancing

Our students dancing2

25th of March

Hello our etwinning friends.

We are Anthoula, Eleni and Petros.

In few days we have a national celebration in our country and we do various activities at school to honour our ancestors.

We are going to write to you a piece of information about it, we are preparing some videoclips and presentations as well.

March 25 is both a national (revolution against the Turks) and religious holiday (Annunciation). The Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks in 1453 and the Greeks remained under the Ottoman rule for nearly 400 years. During this time their language, their religion and their sense of identity remained strong. On March 25, 1821 the bishop Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag at the Monastery of Agia Lavra in Peloponnese and one more revolution started against the Turks. The people of Greece shouted "Freedom or Death" and they fought the War of Independence for 9 years (1821-1829) until a small part of modern Greece was finally liberated and it was declared an independent nation.