Day 4: Χριστός ανέστη ... Christos Anesti

 Kalimera!  Greetings dear reader on this Orthodox Easter Sunday. Last night a group of intrepid pilgrims ventured down the road a bit to the tiny church next to the metropolitan cathedral to celebrate the Easter light. The church was tiny, probably smaller than most of our classrooms, and it is over 500 years old. A very plain building by Orthodox standards it has only a few icons, and plain cream curtains on the iconostasis. We arrived as Melina had suggested just before 10.45 for the 11 pm ceremony. The church was packed and we felt a little guilty taking the seats of the locals but a lovely Greek lady sitting next to Christine made us feel very welcome. Of course everything was in Greek, but the priest started with the invitation to prayer and Kyrie elision, and this was followed by a very lengthy chant, sung by the celebrant and 3 other men from the community. It was like a very long exultet. At the conclusion of this the Easter candle was lit and then people raced to the front of church from everywhere to ensure that they lit their candle from the priest’s candle. The people then processed out into Cathedral Square followed by the priest who carried the light of Christ to the stand that had been set up in the square. We walked with the procession for a bit before returning to our hotel to prepare for this morning’s departure. It was a very special experience, one well worth climbing into bed well after midnight for! 

Small chapel to Virgin Mary

Bags out at 7am this morning and off to breakfast before boarding the bus, final destination Kalambaka. Today’s itinerary needed to be altered because we were not able to enter the shrines at Delphi as they were closed due to it being Easter Sunday. Just before our first stop at a roadhouse we passed through the plain of Marathon, the site of the famous victory over the Persians. So our first stop was a little roadhouse for a cuppa before driving through some narrow mountain roads to the World Heritage listed site of Hosios Lucas, a byzantine monastic complex that dates back almost 1100 years. It comprises two churches: the smaller one constructed in the time of St Lucas around the late 900’s was fairly plain as all of the wall frescoes had deteriorated and it was very simply decorated. It is called the Church of the blessed Virgin. Melina told us the tale of its survival during World War II as invading German forces were heading to the town intent on destroying it. On the way their leader had a vision of the Virgin Mary. When he arrived at the church he realised that the apparition was the same image of Mary from the church and so he ordered the town to be spared and the beautiful churches survived.

The second church, the larger one is the Church of Hosios Lucas, and it adjoins the smaller chapel. It was built in the early 1000s CE. It has the most amazingly beautiful mosaic work, both on the ceilings and especially on the walls and ceiling of the narthex. It was here that we had our lesson on identifying why the icons of Jesus and Mary were dressed in blue and red in reverse. The blue symbolizes humanity and the red symbolized divinity. As a result, Mary’s dress, the garment closest to her, is blue, representative of her humanity; and she is cloaked in red whereas Jesus' main garment is red, reflecting his divinity, and his outer garment is blue, suggesting the humanity that he undertook in the incarnation. This church had an older under chapel dedicated to St Barbara and apparently it is built on two lower levels of chapel. It is as though the grounding in faith reaches down to the earth while the building sits atop it soaring to the heavens in a magnificent mountain setting. While it was not really a scheduled stop I am so pleased that we went there.

En route to lunch we travelled though the exclusive ski town of  Livadia. What a pretty place that is. And all along the side of the road there were whole  lambs being roast on the spit for Easter lunch. The streets were so narrow. It reminded me of the medieval towns in Germany. We really felt like needing to breathe in. Arriving at the restaurant for our lunch we discovered a very interesting range of offerings. On the menu there was rooster, wild boar, moussaka and of course slow roasted lamb. As it was Easter Sunday I had no choice but to have the Greek lamb, followed by a delicious piece of still warm baklava, dripping with honey. Yum! I feel like it was a real Greek experience.

Back on the road, the very very very winding road, and we stopped by the roadside at the Delphi archaeological site. While we could not go in we could see the remains of the gymnasium where the athletes trained for the Pythian games. There is a clear circular pool shaped area and a wall where there were waterspouts for the athletes. This area is also home to the oracle of Delphi. We were so far up in the mountains I just couldn’t help but wonder how they got there in the first place for competitions and training. Mind-blowing to consider this was happening hundreds of years BC.

Today was a very long day in the bus because, after leaving Delphi, it would be 4 hours or so 'til we got to our hotel in Kalambaka. Much of the drive was on winding mountain roads that defied description. We also saw an aqueduct that was built well BC that took water from the snow melt on the mountains down to the coast to be used . As we drove, off in the distance we saw a glimpse of Mt Olympus, famed home of the 12 Greek gods. Down on the plain we were in Themopole and again heard of the defeat of the Spartans at the hands of the Persians. So much history all around it really blows the mind.

Arriving at our hotel there was just a brief time to freshen up before Mass in the hotel at 7pm. The readings chosen for tonight recalled Paul’s Address at the areopagus. It was then off to dinner before time to blog and as there is not a midnight service to attend tonight I might just be forced to fall into bed before midnight tonight. Alleluia!!! is about the only appropriate response to that thought.