Easter, more so than Christmas, is a family reunion time for Greek people.
The word Easter comes from Eostre, the Norse goddess of spring. Spring lamb, roasted on a spit, is the meal of choice in Greece and southern Europe (it’s a pig further north) once the fasting of Lent is over.
If no spit is available, in Greek villages, a lamb packed with lemon, oregano and garlic would be taken on a tray to the bakery, to be slow roasted after the last bread had been baked.
Tess Mallos suggests finding a friendly baker for a whole baked Easter lamb or kid in The Complete Middle East Cookbook. Her version, from the island of Andros, is stuffed with spinach, feta and rice seasoned with fresh dill and mint.
Easter soup, Mayerista, is served immediately after the Saturday midnight service of the Resurrection. It is made the entrails of the lamb – order early if you require the lungs, heart, tripe and liver that have been removed from your lamb!
Eggs are a big feature of Easter all over the world, not only because they are a symbol of fertility, new life and resurrection, but because where it is strictly observed, eggs are not allowed during Lent, so in many cultures they are hard-boiled and put aside for decorating and distributing on Easter Sunday.
In Greece, eggs are decorated on the day before Good Friday, and the smell of vinegar, used to fix the dye, wafts into the streets. We have the Greek food dye used to colour eggs bright red, in honour of the blood of Christ.
You could try a natural dye for a paler, pastel effect – try a four chopped beetroot with two tablespoons of white vinegar for pink eggs, or for blue eggs, use four cups of red cabbage and vinegar. Let the dye cool and then place the hard-boiled eggs in the dye – the longer you leave the eggs in the dye, the deeper the colour. For a lovely golden colour, boil the eggs with onion skins. To intensify the colours, rub the eggs with olive oil or bacon rind after dyeing.
The Thursday before Good Friday is also baking day for sweet Easter bread. Prosforon, or offering bread, is another tradition. On the island of Patmos they are a metre in diameter and made with finest wheat flour. The piece in the middle, stamped with a cross, is distributed from the altar, and the rest is given out to be taken home.
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