One of these photos is everyone with their new Easter light. The other one is the light that has just been lit spreading throughout the church. Both very beautiful.

I haven’t written in several days, but the things that have happened over the past couple of days couldn’t possibly be described in writing. I will try my best though.

On Friday, I woke up and helped my friend paint the lines out on her street. We were actually very good Samaritans and we painted the neighbors as well because they are kind of old and it must be done by Easter. We had so much fun though, and by the end it looked really good. Plus, I am able to add it to my “street conservation” credit. J

After that, I went to Lefkes with her again and hung out. Because it was good Friday, everything was closed. It is a very big holiday, but not in the sense of celebrating. Good Friday symbolized that Christ has been crucified. It is supposed to be a deeply sad day. The bell at the church tolls non-stop all day from 6 in the morning until 3 in the morning (that’s when I lost count and fell asleep anyway). It is a day to go to church, and there are essentially services all day. There is a very beautiful church in Lefkes, so I just went and sat outside of it (I wasn’t properly attired to go in) and listened to the Byzantine Greek being sung in the service. It was very nice. I stayed there on the bench outside the church for about an hour.

After that, I decided to go for a walk, so I just followed paths until I got to the end of town. At the edge of town, there are the remains of the road built during the Byzantine Empire. The road is amazing in the places that it is well preserved. I walked a couple of miles down the path until I got a sense that it was time to go back. The path was beautiful with a stream running beside it at times. It took me up a mounting, through an olive grove and over fields of flowers. I really enjoyed it.

When I walked back, the church service was over, but they had a parade of the Greek equivalent of the Boy Scouts (except that the Greek version is a bit more morbid with it’s roots in Fascist Greece).

We finally left Lefkes, and I spent the rest of the afternoon eating dinner, snacking on gelato, taking photos and visiting with friends.

There was another church service at night, so I decided to go to it. I was told that it was one of the most amazing things I would see on Paros. At first, it was just chanting in Greek, and it seemed a little dull. However, the church is beautiful because it is all decked out with purple ribbons and flowers, etc. The tomb of Christ (holding the icon inside) is covered in flowers, and lines form for hours on end to kiss it (as it tradition in Orthodox Christendom). The priests spent and hour lighting candled and carrying them around the church. They also were swinging incense everywhere, and it was a very fun tradition to watch.

At 11:00, they sung a very beautiful hymn and then threw thousands of rose petals from the dome of the church down onto the tomb (and the priests). It was an amazing thing to see. I photographed it, and the photos will be ready by the end of the semester to view, but I would say that it WAS one of the most worthwhile things I’ve seen. It really was a religious experience. I had a good spot to watch it from as well up in the balcony of the church which is closed except for two days a year.

Yesterday was Holy Saturday. I spent the day working on photographs and doing other things for school. However, at 10:00, it was back to church for me. I spent one full hour taking photos of the beautiful but empty church. At 11:00, the service started, and I listened to the Greek that I don’t know and never will for a while. At 11:55, the lights went out in the church and in the holy sanctum, you could see the priest light up a light. It then grew as the alter boys and everyone else lit their lights. The point is that at that moment (12:00AM Easter morning), Christ has been resurrected. The light symbolizes new life. Everyone was then to light their light from the light of the priest or someone that had lit their light from the priest. It took a while for me to get my candle lit up in the balcony, but as my friend was giving me a light, fireworks went off outside and the song “Christos Anasti (Christ is Risen)” reached it’s high point. It was amazing. I took many photos of the light spreading over the church, and it was a great experience. When I managed to make my way through the crowd of thousands of people, I took my candle home and made a black cross over my doorway. Though this sounds as though it has its roots in the Passover, it is actually an Orthodox tradition to keep the evil sprits away for the year. The amazing thing is that the light that burns in the church and across many Parian homes all year (until next Easter) was born on that night, and I took part in it.

Today it is Easter Sunday. Everything is as dead as I’ve ever seen it in the town. People are at home roasting their lamb, eating the things that have been deprived of them for 40 days. The old men on the street say “Christos Anasti” (Christ is Risen) to which I reply “Alithos Anasti” (He is Truly Risen). I get a “Bravo!” and a pat on the back. I say. “Chronia Polla” (Many Years) and head on my way with a smile on my face.

All I have to say to you is “Kalo Pashcha!” (Beautiful Easter).

Here are some photos of the red Easter eggs my friend and I dyed. They were really good. Red is the traditional color to dye the easter eggs.

OK. Here are the photos of the street conservation I did

Note the lines I painted

OK. Here are some decorations from last Sunday. Pretty cool I think.

Today was quite amazing. This actually marks the second day in a row that I have found myself up on the roof of a building asleep. It was actually quite nice. Not only did I get to thaw out from the winter, I have also started to work on a very nice summer tan that I am sure will stay with me until I leave my home here in Greece.

I woke up late this morning because I very rarely keep a clock next to me in bed, and it very rarely matters when I wake up in the morning. I took a shower (at least the pathetic version of one that they have in Greece) and headed for the school. As I was starting to figure out what I was going to do for the rest of the day, my friend walked in and announced that she was going to go to Lefkes and that she had extra room in her car. As I was thinking of doing something in Lefkes today by bus, I took her up on her offer and jumped in her car. We took a nice little ride. I had 4 hours to kill. I took a walk to the top of the hill around the town, and I was able to take quite a few amazing photos. I was pleasantly surprised.

After my walk, I read my book and fell asleep on the roof of the sanctum. It was very nice.

My friend and I took the long way back, and we ran into some cattle in a poppy field. It was quite amazing to see. The field was really red, and the cattle were just munching away. I got quite a few good photos there as well.

We were hungry when we got back so we stopped at a café and had a little bite to eat, it was really enjoyable. I had a feta and olive sandwich. It’s been a while since I went out like that, so I had a really good time.

Today is the day that you are traditionally supposed to color Easter eggs. The store was all out of eggs. When I went to the other store to get eggs, I was so happy to get my hands on some that I didn’t realize until later that I had grabbed brown eggs, and they aren’t good for coloring. Oh well. I’ve decided to spend the rest of my day here working on my photos. I’m pretty excited about that.

Jared will be here in almost exactly one week. That’s very exciting to me. I’m so happy!!!!

OK. Hope your day is going very well.

OK. I don’t know if you read what I put up about Easter, but today is the Wednesday of the Orthodox Holy Week. Things around here are starting to get a little crazy. I’d say more than a little crazy. Greeks are like bears in the fact that they work hard all summer and then they kind of hibernate in the winter. Easter is an excuse for things to start to get going because 1.) it is religiously a restart to the year and 2.) so many tourists come that it proves to be a very lucrative endeavor to have your store open and running by then. So, I have been on a kind of sleepy island for the past two weeks that has suddenly awoken.

Another traditional thing during Easter time is to clean. It’s surely where the idea of spring-cleaning came from. If Christ is going to be resurrected, we may as well get everything clean and shiny for the rest of the year. So, for the first time all winter, people are actually working during the afternoon siesta trying to get their floors washed and buildings cleaned. It is also the time of year when they do the major construction repairs to their houses. Any area that needs to be plastered is re-plastered, and white washing is done if the current job isn’t pristine.

Another major thing is the repainting of the lines on the streets. Traditionally white was painted around each flagstone in the street to provide illumination in the moonlight (before streetlights). The islands have now become very well known for this street painting, and it is a mandate (at least in Parikia) that all lines be repainted once a week. It holds to tradition (and tradition is a VERY Greek thing) as well as fulfilling the expectations of the tourists.

The school needed to do this in several places, so I volunteered to help. We painted the lines all around the Plaka outside of the school. It was a lot of fun. I learned some things actually, and I’m going to put it on the course description of the things that I did while I was in Greece. After all, it is ancient street restoration isn’t it?

The holy week has thus far been uneventful for me. Palm Sunday was a lot of fun because I got to go to the church and listen to them chant out all of the traditional things. There are church services every day that go over the week before the death of Christ, but them being usual services and done in Greek, I haven’t attended any of them. The churches will soon be all decked out in flowers and purple, and the priests will have on their best attire. At that point, I will sneak in with my camera and get some shots of this beautiful time.

The one thing that I did end up getting was some traditional bread. It is sweet bread in the form of a ring covered in sesame seeds. It actually tastes quite wonderful. Though the Greeks eat tons of this anyway, it is traditional to make it on Holy Tuesday. The bakery was LOADED with it, and I went and bought two of them for just half Euro each. I got to share them with some of my friends, and I was glad to have taken part in that tradition.

Today and tomorrow are relatively uneventful, but all the excitement comes on Friday and Saturday. Friday is Good Friday. This is the day that Christ was crucified. It is a very sad day. Everyone wears black and the bell in the church tolls all day long (as is traditional when someone dies). The young women decorate a tomb with wildflowers, and people spend the day going to visit it. Nothing sweet is eaten (and in many cases nothing is eaten) because when Christ asked for water, he was given vinegar to drink. On this day there is a very late service (I believe at 10 PM) where they take the tomb off of its position in the church and parade it around town. There is a very beautiful moment when the lights of the church go out and then the priest lights a single flame. Everyone has candles, and they must light their candle with that flame. These are then taken home and three black crosses are put over the door to keep evil spirits out.

Saturday night is the actual Easter service. It is very late because after it, all of the restaurants are open and ready for business as LENT is over, and meat, oil, milk, cheese, etc. can be eaten again. I have never been in Greece when Lent was not going on, and I am excited to see meat again heavily in restaurants (not that it’s not easy to get during Lent).

As for me, I’m enjoying my little break here. I have spent time in the darkroom and time in the painting studio. I am preparing for Jared to come by picking up any loose ends needed before he arrives (like buying food, etc.)

I am also working with my school at this point to get them to give me credit for the work I have done here. They are quite picky, but I spent the entire day yesterday working out things, and I think I have outsmarted them. When I return from Greece, I should have relatively little left for me to have a degree in Art History (as I have been working toward for so long).

Today, the wind has come up from the south and we again have a sirocco. This is the 5th one since I’ve come. A sirocco is when the wind comes up off the Sahara desert and carries the warmth with it. It is funny to go outside because you think that the weather is going to be so cold because the wind is blowing so hard, but if you go outside with more than a t-shirt you sweat to death. On the south side of the island the wind is blowing so hard that your body can be at a 45-degree angle to the ground and the wind will hold it’s full weight. There are many odd things that happen during a sirocco. Mainly, the sky can turn a dark, deep shade of Amber from all of the sand traveling in it. On a less grand scale, people get headaches, have bad dreams and go crazy in general. There is a saying that if a sirocco has been blowing for more than three days and someone commits a crime of passion that it will be forgiven. You have to experience it to understand it’s strange effects.

Ok. I hope that this is enough of an update for you because I have nothing left to write up on. I will fill you in on how the rest of the holy week goes.

And the Clouds Smiled Upon the Carpet of Flowers

And the carpet of flowers lay before her…