and important days

EASTER

Easter in Kalymnos is an Amazing Experience

The island starts to prepare for Easter months in advance, it a time in everyone calendar for a unique experience. Everybody cleans, scrubs, swabs, colours and plants his house as much as possible so as to be ready for this wonderful festival. There are a lot of events during the holy week with church on a daily basis, the atmosphere is electric and with all the Kalymnians from all over the world returning home to celebrate this special time of year.

Good Friday and Easter parade takes place at with all the church parish’s walking into town with the epitaphs. The procession at Pothia is exceptionally. It takes long time until all epitaphs and its people of worship have passed. Countless people line the harbour promenade, the whole islands population are here. Accompanied by the unavoidable firecrackers and dynamite explosions.

Holy Saturday there is much to do.  The men are heating up the oven in the afternoon, and the boys are gathering dry wood for them to help with lighting up the oven. In the meantime Kalymnian women are preparing the traditional Kalymnian Easter meal, Mououri. It is a delicious dish. After the casserole pans or tins are pushed into the oven, it is closed with stones and clay. It cooks overnight until the fire goes out and the meat cooks very slowly in the oven. Nowadays there are less and less ovens on the island, many take the lamb to be cooked at the bakery. Many people have not eaten meat for more than 40 days.  Saturday evening the fold meet up at the church for the resurrection-ceremonial. The service starts at 11pm. At midnight the priest preaches the “Christos anesti- Christ revived”. Everybody is in high spirits and firecrackers are being thrown everywhere. Happy Easter is on the word of everyone and then home for soup.

Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are celebrated with family and friends. The first thing we do on Easter Sunday is to open the ovens and eat lamb, to see whose tastes the best.  Lunch is spent with family and friends, then early evening a trip to Pothia to watch the dynamite.