Corfu Easter 2014 "Η Κυρά Σαρακοστή"

" Την κυρά Σαρακοστή 

που 'ναι έθιμο παλιό 

οι γιαγιάδες μας την φτιάχναν 

με αλεύρι και νερό. 

Για στολίδι της φορούσαν 

στο κεφάλι ένα σταυρό 

μα το στόμα της ξεχνούσαν 

γιατί νήστευε καιρό. 

Και τις μέρες τις μετρούσαν 

με τα πόδια της τα επτά 

κόβαν ένα τη βδομάδα 

μέχρι να 'ρθει η Πασχαλιά"

source e-children.blogspot.nl

Lent, or in Greek "Sarakosti", is a period of seven weeks before Easter. During Lent we prepare physically and spiritually for the great event of Easter.

Everything actually begins three weeks before Lent. During the three weekends of Carnival, we start to refrain ourselves first from meat and then dairy products. 

The first Monday of Lent is called "Kathara Deutera" (exact translation Clean Monday) and it is the first day of fasting: we do not eat meat, fish, diary products, eggs. We do eat shellfish, fish roe, squid, cuttlefish and octopus. During Lent there are also days we do not use olive oil, like Kathara Deutera, and that is often the hardest. Try eating a nice salad without any dressing.....

During Sarakosti, the services on Sunday are different than the rest of the year. I really enjoyed going to church with my father on those Sundays. I loved the melodies, the psalms and the stories. You, as a person, stand central. The virtues that you should cultivate are to be found in the parables and you are given a centreline to work on during the following week. Your spiritual evolution is really important. Every year this is the period of reflexion and growth, after the long winter and before the even longer summer.

The picture and the poem at the beginning of this post are about Kura Sarakosti (freely translated mrs Lent). In some areas of Greece, grandmothers used to make this pastry out of a simple wheat and water dough. She was usually pictured as a nun, with a headscarf, a cross, she had no mouth and had seven feet. Those feet were cut off, one each week of Lent. Thus they could easily see how many weeks there are left for Easter. I can not remember anyone on the island who made a Kura Sarakosti. First time I read about it was at school and we probably made one.

Sarakosti is a wonderful time. The sun start to grow warmer, spring is at its best and flowers are coming out everywhere! Of course there is the occasional rain and the storm passing by. Maybe even a bit of frost or hail. The first swallows arrive and at the nearing Easter the pink flamingoes pass by on a salt lake on the south of the island.

The whole island is preparing for the great event and everyone is feeling the anticipation grow. These days here in the Netherlands the weather is warm and sunny. It feels like here too the spring has taken over nature. I feel a little bit like home, wearing a t-shirt when sitting in the sun.

Easter is coming! How many weeks still to go?