On Easter Saturday, during the morning services in church, the so-called “First Resurrection” takes place, which is celebrated in a special way in Cyprus: the black sheets that cover the icons throughout the Holy Week fall, the priests spread bay leaves and myrtle leaves on the floors, the worshippers thump the pews with great might, the church bells ring joyously and the atmosphere is triumphant and glorious making it difficult for a spectator not to feel thrilled. On Saturday night, towards midnight, Christ’s Resurrection is celebrated out in the open. Church bells ring joyously again and the children, after having collected wood during the whole of the Holy Week, light the so-called ‘Lambradjia’ and throw firecrackers. On Easter Sunday families make lamb souvla (i.e. on the spit) or lamb in the oven with artichokes and large groups of relatives celebrate together. Avkotes. Various kinds of bread rolls that had inside one or more red eggs and were called avkotes were very popular during the Easter celebrations. The avkotes were prepared along with the other normal bread rolls on the Thursday before Easter Sunday. The Thursday was also the day when the eggs were dyed, usuallu red but sometimes also yellow. The traditional methods of dying eggs were either with onion leaves, yellow daisies (called smilouthkia) or with special seaweed that was boiled with various roots such as wild erythrodanus, also called rizarin. The roots were beaten well before being put to the boil. Flaounes. Throughout Cyprus, Easter Saturday was the day when the flaounes were made, the main Easter speciality. The flaouna is an inseparable part of Easter in Cyprus, as a Cypriot saying tells us: “with Easter come the flaounes, with weddings come the dowries”. The preparations for the making of the flaounes began on Easter Friday. The grated cheese from Pafos was mixed with the eggs and the leaven. This mixture was called foukos or fokos and its preparation was a kind of ritual. The leaven was placed in the flour in the shape of a cross, in five points, symbolising the nails that were used to crucify Christ.
The lighting of this fire, at which time the figure of Judas is usually also burned, is one of the customs of Easter week. To a group of people around a fire Apostle Peter had renounced Christ three times, according to a Gospel text.
THE RESURRECTION In the world you shall have sorrow; but be patient, I have conquered the world The Divine Passion responds to the drama of mankind, suffering humanity. The traditional Byzantine iconography represents the resurrection as a “Descent to Hades” by Christ, where the resurrected one offers his hand to Adam to raise him up so he be liberated from the bonds of death. Just as the rituals of Holy Week of the Passion also correspond to Spring, the Divine Drama seems furthermore to respond to the sufferings and renaissance of Nature itself. It is the seasonal Drama of renewed Life.
‘Lambradjia’ The word ‘Lambradjia’ means a great fire. Usually, such is called the great fire lit in the courtyards of churches on the night of Easter Saturday. As from the morning of this day, or even as from preceding days, the youth of the villages and dioceses gather and bring trunks of trees, wood, branches and planks to the church courtyards. All of these are piled up and they set fire to them on the night of Easter Saturday, while the liturgy of the Resurrection is performed inside the church.
Fig. 74. The Descent to Hades. Iconostasis architrave (detail), from the Church of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis, Kalopanagiotis.
Triumphant Easter Hymn
Fig. 73. Bells from the Church of Agios Nikolaos, Orounda.
Extract from the Encyclopedia “ºÈÏfi΢ÚÔ˜“ (“Filokypros”) 1988, vol. 8, p. 195.
Christ is risen from the dead Trampling down death by death, and to those in tombs, granting life. The great celebration of Easter, which in Hebrew means ‘Passover’, consisting of the celebration of the remembrance of the crossing of the Red Sea. It was the passing from the ‘house of bondage’ towards the ‘Promised Land’. House of bondage is now the entire global condition of existence and the promised land is now the kingdom of the spirit. “¶ÂÚ› ÙÔ˘ ÙÚ·ÁÈÎÔ‡“ (“About the tragedy”), Christos Malevitsis Astrolabos/Efthini editions, Athina 1992, p. 95.
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