Easter with the Kazakos Family

Easter is one of the most important family holidays here in Greece. Easter preparations begin on Holy Thursday when the traditional Easter bread, tsoureki, is baked, and eggs are dyed red (red is the color of life as well as a representation of the blood of Christ). Special dishes are prepared, a whole lamb, eyeballs, tiny little ears, and all is readied, and bags and bags of charcoal are lugged into the yard near the barbeque. Friday there is no work at all, so Thursday the special Easter soup is prepared for Friday's meal.

Saturday afternoon our exchange host, George, was out in the back yard with a few other guys, studying the barbeque. They busily adjusted, measured, turned, and tinkered with the barbeque spit for a couple of hours. First they would work a , then stand back as guys do, discussing, then a bit more fiddling, then more, a swig of beer, more fiddling, more discussion. This went on all afternoon until mama called them in for dinner.
Later that night the tradition is to go to mass and then afterwards there are fireworks. This is to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. I was sound asleep at 1am when I was awakened by loud booms and Cracks. In my sleep I thought it was gunfire, but then I remembered about the fireworks, so I got up and stood on the deck. I could see colorful fireworks off in the distance, and smoke over in in the direction of Athens, and someone in our neighborhood was setting off those loud crackers that have a bright flash. The fireworks continued sporadically all night.

Easter Sunday arrived sunny and blue. Our host had invited us to join the family for their traditional Easter feast Early in the day work began on the barbeque. The fire was started, with the help of several guys, and after much testing of the coals, the first spit of meat went up. This was the delicacy, Coratella, which is the lamb innards and organs, wrapped up in the intestines.

People started arriving in the morning and by the time we went down around noon we had a big family. George's wife, Athina was still working in the kitchen. There was the beautiful daughter, Mara, and her handsome (think George Clooney) husband, Nico, and two little boys, Pandelles and little George. The Kazakos son, Costas, and his pretty wife, Katerina, pregnant with a son, were there too. Katerina's parents, the father , Mikas, with a snowy white cap of hair and lots of personality and a more taciturn mother, Johanna, were at the table. Neighbors came by with bottles of wine and other gifts, to check out the lamb turning on the spit and wish their friends a happy Easter.The table was decorated with bowls of red eggs and flowers. Bottles of wine were opened and everyone was in high spirits by the time the first sample of Coratella was presented. I got the first serving, and gamely took my first bite of lamb innards. It was spiced just right.

Pretty soon dishes began arriving. A platter of cucumbers, olives, feta cheese and tomatoes was placed on the table. Then a delicious yogurt dish with garlic, herbs and spices came out. Cheese pie, deep fried pastries, beet salad, and bread arrived.

The lamb was taken off the fire and George began carving chunks of meat off the bone. Don got a nice serving of crisp lamb skin, which George said was the best part, but then he also said the Coratella was the best part, so Don couldn't decide which to try first.

The son and son-in-law set up big speakers on the patio and traditional Greek music was booming around the yard. In fact, music was booming around the neighborhood from every back yard and the ozone level went up several points with all of the charcoal barbeques in action. Every single family in Greece has a lamb on the barby for Easter.

We each selected a red egg from the bowl and we played the traditional game, tsougrisma. Each of us tried to crack a friend's egg with our own and the person with the last egg intact was promised good luck for the rest of the year. My egg cracked right away, so I ate it. Ha! I will have good luck for the rest of the year anyway, and maybe next year too.

Next the dancing started. Mara and her little boy, then George, and then more left the table and joined in. Pretty soon they had Don up and dancing in the circle and then I joined in too. It was a fun time.

Around 5pm I thanked my hosts and excused myself. The booming music was hard on my ears and I needed some respite. Don and Cheryl stayed on and continued with the celebration. Eventually they came up too, but the party continued on well after dark.

We were so grateful to have this chance to participate in the Kazakos family celebration. It was a highlight of our visit to Greece.