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Anastasia Balezdrova

Easter is one of the brightest and most important Christian holidays. Its symbolism is associated with the resurrection of the soul and its birth for a new life. It generates hope and faith, and everyone expects the resurrection and revival in his life.

Easter, however is also associated with more terrestrial and very tasty things. The cakes, the painted eggs and, of course, the roasted lamb are the three typical dishes that are on every festive table.

Anyone who has visited Greece at least once knows that traditions here are still quite strong. Although in recent years the number of people who respect the purpose of the Easter fasting decreases, yet in the past, Holy Week, and especially on Good Friday most Greeks are strict. Therefore, they are looking forward to Easter, to taste the delicious holiday dishes.

Preparations for Easter in the bakeries starts 10 days earlier. Then bakers start to knead the Easter buns and cakes and at the same time continue to prepare lenten patties and other snacks and sweets for those customers who are fasting.

"The secret of the delicious Easter cake is in the good preparation" said for GRReporter the owner of a large bakery in the Athens district of Neo Psyche George Zervos. The dough is kneaded with yeast, then it stays for several hours, then shaped and baked. This produces delicious and beautiful looking Easter cakes, because "one person becomes a client through the eye, but becomes a regular customer because of the taste". His bakery sells Easter cakes throughout the year, but in the days before Easter the sales double and even triple.

In Greece, Easter is widely accepted as a family holiday as an opportunity for residents of large urban centers to return to their hometowns and villages and spend the holiday with family and friends. Spring time allows this to happen in the open in country backyards, around the spit, where the Easter lamb is baked. This, for the lucky ones who have this opportunity.

For the townspeople who live in apartments, however this is impossible, but how to bake a whole lamb in the oven of their own cooker? Just for them the bakery of Mr Zervos as well as dozens of others in Athens will be open at Easter so as to take orders for the roasting of the traditional lamb. "We will begin to take lambs from 07:00 am, although we had several orders since today. We do it more in order to serve people and not so much for the pay." Typically, customers bring the meat seasoned and ready to be put the wider professional ovens. But our employees also have a solution for those who either roast one for the first time or just do not know how to cook. Lambs are roasted on medium heat, at a temperature around 200 degrees for three hours.

When I asked Mr Zervos about the secret of the delicious lamb he replied like this: "Look, I'm from Crete. There we only put salt on the meat. We do not add anything else. We put the meat on the grill and we put it on a plate and bake it. Thus it dries, all fluids and fat flow out of it and it bakes just right."

If you visit the island, however, you can not help but taste the so-called "antikristo". This is again a lamb that is placed against the fire and roasted on slow fire. The result is a very tasty meat".

Last year in the bakery of Mr Zervos were baked about 25 lambs. "I do not know from today how many lambs the customers will bring tomorrow. The tradition is to bake the lambs on the spit. It depends on the weather. If it rains or wind blows people find it difficult to roast meat outdoors, even in the yards of their country houses and then they bring it here."

But it is the custom for the specific day. When you return home after a solemn Mass for Easter people in Greece traditionally eat Easter soup "magiritsa". Its classic version is prepared from lamb offal, fresh onions, olive oil, parsley, dill and it is bind with egg and lemon juice. In some parts of Greece hosts add chopped lettuce or spinach. Some gourmets say that this soup is very suitable for the introduction of meat in the diet after the long Easter fasting, which often last more than 40 days.

Usually after the soup Greeks also eat some lamb with potatoes in the oven and fight with red Easter eggs. Just a few hours later, men wake up and begin preparation of the lamb, which will rotate on the spit for hours to reach the plates of hungry and numbness in anticipation members of the family at noon. All this is accompanied by laughter and celebrated with ouzo, wine or beer.

Christ Resurected and for many more years, readers of GRReporter! ... Good appetite!