In the lead up to Easter we fasted, and by fasted, I mean we ate french fries, and lots of them. Some people, old people, kept a strict vegan diet for weeks before Easter, but we kids only did it for a few days. The lambada -– the candle given to a child by her godparents –– was a big deal and every year we waited to see what trinkets and charms it would be adorned with. It’s one of the most beautiful images, the sea of children at midnight mass, their faces illuminated by candle light. That, and the epitaphio, a coffin covered in hundreds of flowers, that is carried through the village and sent out to sea. We stayed up way past midnight cracking red eggs, eating Kokoretzi and reveling in the light and music of the panigiri. I’m a million miles away from all that, but this weekend, there will be red eggs, there will be tsoureki and there will be lamb on the barbeque.
