Sprung into April by going to the Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday celebrations held at the Horse Shoe. Now, I must say I did not know much about it, this was a whole new experience for me, but I had Nick the host walk me through some of the traditional aspects and what it all represents which was great.

What is a Greek Easter you might ask, and how come it is celebrated on a different day 8^th April to what we are all used to? Answer is, many orthodox churches base the date on the Julian calendar.

It was a huge family event with activities to keep the children busy like face painting, horse riding etc and it was good to see people all dressed up and come together to celebrate. It was explained to me that the red dyed eggs (boiled not the chocolate ones am used to) on the tables signify the blood of Christ so the premise is you go round the table hitting each other’s eggs and whoever has their egg still whole at the end of it will have good luck for the rest of the year, mine got smashed.

The appetizers were served while we waited for the tables to fill up and were Greek olives, eggplant dip and hummus accompanied by bread. The feast was traditional Greek and the main attraction was the whole roasted lamb on the spit to represent the lamb of God.

Food was blessed by the archbishop of the orthodox church and we were ready to eat. After that drinks were flowing, there was live music by the incredible Kiki, lots of dancing and rose petals being thrown in the air. What a celebration now I know, so happy Easter and as the Greeks say Xristos Anesti.

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