Eye on Monday: Greek Easter Can Be Dangerous (video)
Christopher Gabriel | Apr 20, 2009 | Comments 11
As any of you who come to Blog Harbor on a regular basis know, I’m Greek. Greek, as in Greek Orthodox. And while I always celebrate Easter on it’s traditional day, Orthodox Easter follows the Julian Calendar which means, more often than not, Greek Easter is after Passover. So, two Easter dinners. Greek People: It’s about the food.
But this Eye on Monday is not a lesson on Orthodox Easter. It’s what amounts to a highlight reel of why my people are nuts. Loons.
We talk loudly, we walk loudly, we eat loudly . . . and we shoot rockets at each other.
In the town of Vrodandos on the tiny Greek island of Chios, two Greek Orthodox churches have a very unique way of celebrating Orthodox Easter . . . while services are going on. When I first saw the video, I thought it was dinner at my house when I was a kid. Krystos Anesti!
I’m going to have to say that this would make it very compelling to go to church. I’m pretty sure I could convince my kids that church is NOT boring if there were fireworks.
And for the record, my people – my immediate people, as in parents, brothers, sister – are nuts too. They’re just nuts in a much less fun way than yours are.
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Crazy. Looks like they mixed in footage from Baghdad during the first Gulf War.
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Hi Jeff, thank you for stopping by! Your comment was exactly my thought as well. I can almost hear Bernard Shaw uttering his infamous “…clearly I’ve never been there, but this feels like we’re in the center of hell” comment.
The footage also made me think of flaming arrows from the 300 Spartans…I wonder if there’s footage on that somewhere.
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Terri – I think the kids would immediately be on board with church if they were given the job of Rocket Launchers.
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That looks like a lot of fun actually! And happy Pascha! Christ is Risen! (Or, since you’re Greek, Christos Anesti!)
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I think this would be a lot more believable if it was Greeks vs. Turks. But in any event if more religious events were celebrated like this we’d be a much more peaceful planet…mainly because there’d be about 50% less populations
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That’s a very good point, de-I.
Can we extend this out to Christmas in NYC – Bloomingdales and Macy’s going after each other with rockets. New Yorkers would love it but sales might plunge.
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Actually I’m surprised that soccer fans around the world haven’t thought of this yet. And how about Congress! Or Fox News vs. The New York Times!
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Wow. I want to be a Greek!! How do I sign up?
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Mike, signing up to be Greek begins with souvlaki and ends with ouzo. And somewhere in the middle: Saganaki (flaming cheese). The phrase “it’s all Greek to me…” will become much clearer after a long, loud night of souvlaki, saganaki and ouzo.
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The stuff you learn in here! I’d like to see the faces of the St John’s Ambulance volunteers at that event! Anticipation. Fear. Rage. Vengeance for getting them out of bed to tend self-inflicted burns…
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