Easter holidays in Corfu-Greece.Find your deal in Stay-Offers.com and travel to Greece!!

Easter, the greatest festivity of the Greek-Orthodox Church, is celebrated with particular reverence all over Greece. In Corfu the festivities of Easter are unique. The Western Civilization's influences are clearly visible even in this mainly Greek-Orthodox festivity.Corfiots call Easter Lambri of Lambria (Bright) expressing this way the symbolic spiritual brightness of the day. After a long seven-week period devoted to fasting and abstention from any kind of feast, comes Easter, day of happiness, day of enjoyments.The special local customs, the direct relation of these days with the beginning of spring, show off a uniqueness, which has rendered the Corfiot Easter an attraction with visitors from all over the world. The polyphonic ecclesiastical music (a local particularity) predominates and pours out of the Corfiot churches to the small alleys of the city and the suburbs. This harmonic melody, a particular quadraphonia, which came from Crete in the 17th century, even today is called "Cretan melody".The Corfiot Easter begins with the religious events of Palm Sunday. At 11.00 in the morning of Palm Sunday, the litany of the Holy Shrine of Saint Spyridon takes place, a procession which holds since 1630, in commemoration of the deliverance of the island from the spread of the deadly plague, which took the lives of many Corfiots in 1629. This litany is the largest in size and length and circumambulates the city on the trail of the old Venetian city-walls, with many stoppages on the way for prayers and entreaties. It is the only litany that all 18 Philharmonics of the island participate to honor the Patron Saint of Corfu. It is the custom after the end of the litany, all the Philharmonics to parade through the old city center playing cheerful marches. On the same night at 8.30 in the Municipal Theater the concert of the 'Mantzaros' Philharmonic takes place with solemn music, which introduces us in the mood of the Passion Week.From the next day, Monday before Easter, the Corfiots start shopping for Easter. The sweet smell of 'phogatsa', 'mandolato' and 'colombina' (all local food specialties) is sensed all around the city. In the afternoon the bells of the churches ring to call the congregation for the Service.On Tuesday before Easter the famous Kassiani motet is heard in the churches and at 9.00 in the evening in the Peristyle of the Old Palace the "Organization of Corfiot Activities" (OKE) stages the Musical and Poetic Night with the theme: "From Golgotha to Resurrection".In the past, from Wednesday before Easter onwards, the sheeps were brought from the countryside to Sarocco Sq. to be sold to the Corfiots and to the merchants from Patras. Nowadays, on the same night, at 8.30 the people are filling up the Municipal Theater to hear the Municipal Chorus singing ecclesiastical hymns of the Passion Week with chorals from the East and the West.On Maundy Thursday the Service of the Holy Passion is attended by the Corfiots in the churches. In the Catholic Cathedral, Duomo, they light up 12 candles and put out one-at-a-time after the hearing of each of the "12 Gospels". On the same day with the first bell-ring the red Easter-eggs are dyed, eternal symbol of the renewal of life and nature.OnGood Friday before the noon, the churches are crowded with people for the ceremony of the Descent of Christ from the Cross and the circumambulation of the dead Christ on a white sheet in an emotional atmosphere and the funereal ring of the bells. Later, the children run about the neighborhoods asking for flowers for the Epitaph. The decoration of each Epitaph is almost exclusive work of the young girls and towards the noon the Epitaphs are exposed to the faithful for pilgrimage.Early in the afternoon begins the circumambulation of the Epitaphs on the streets, alleys and squares of the old city and the suburbs. From 2.00 in the afternoon until late at night, tens of Epitaphs will pass around the city and as time passes more Epitaphs gather on the historic center and almost cross each other. Each Epitaph is accompanied by a chorus, a philharmonic, torches, manual lamps, scouolas (guild Patron Saint standards), which during this evening are held sideways indicating the funereal character of the procession. Schools, scouts and groups of little girls carrying baskets full of flowers, which are abundant in Corfu this time of the year, also accompany each Epitaph.The last Epitaph of the night is at 10.00 and is the impressive Epitaph of Corfu Cathedral. In this Epitaph, the presence of the Holy Clergy, of the Authorities and of thousands of Corfiots and visitors, gives an ecstatic dimension in this mournful night. The 'Old' Philharmonic ('red') performs the Albinoni's Adagio, the 'Mantzaros' Philharmonic ('blue') plays Verdi's Marcia Funebre and the 'Kapodistrias' Philharmonic plays Mariani's Elegia Funebre, also known as Sventura and Chopin's Marche Funebre. http://stay-offers.com/index.php/en/ Page