An Easter Blast - At Last

 Orthodox Easter has just been celebrated with relish for the first since 2019. People in their thousands travelled to villages and islands – trips that Covid restrictions had denied them. The virus still remains unvanquished but we badly needed a break and it was sweet! The weather calmed down and turned the warmth up and, despite price rises in food and fuel, the Greeks celebrated Easter as only they know how!

                                     

Greek television program-planning ensures that in Holy Week, prior to the Easter week-end, we have a surfeit of religious epics. Question: Does Robert Powell enjoy a fee for each time Jesus of Nazareth is shown? He must adore Easter traditions if so. :)                                                     

     I find really interesting the documentaries related to the Christian story. In the past history could be an appealing amalgam of hearsay, tales projected by specific interest groups with more than a tinge of propaganda - political and ecclesiastical. But when you get historians, meteorologists, archaeologists, linguists, IT specialists, working together to discover relevant data to piece together what may have happened at that time in the Holy Land, to check out what stories, if any, hold water - now that is fascinating.

Gregorian chants are heard frequently as we follow the liturgical steps through Holy Week. Even a Scottish Presbyterian background does not prevent me from appreciating the haunting beauty of some of those pieces. However, it has to be said too many Byzantine hymns can be quite heavy especially around the time of the Crucifixion. And so it was that as I was cooking in the kitchen, I was surprised to hear the strains of the accordion music of cousin, Iain Macphail’s Scottish dance-band blasting from a CD – it had all got too much for Z!!  I lightened the spiritual load by practising my slip-change-of-step down the corridor in time to the jaunty tunes and then later indulged in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2!

With the weather improving greatly, we’ve had time to enjoy the raging beauty that is Greece at this time of year.                                      

 

For Orthodox Easter our white lilac blossomed alongside its more common lilac cousin.

                                          

 We had a wonderful break and, what with visitors coming from Sweden shortly, with our first rosebuds just coming into bloom, there is much to look forward to.                                                

Oh, and there’s that Lidl egg that must just ... or just must? ...  be eaten before it melts.                                                      

 May May be kind to us all! 

Time to Celebrate ?

 

This year there seems to be little cause for rejoicing.

·         Putin continues to bombard Ukraine with massive loss of life. Many heads of state have condemned what Biden has called Russia’s acts of genocide. Sadly, despite the voiced support, this sketch did not predict the state of things to come. We are now in the second month of carnage. 

                                                          

·         Recently a mass shooter randomly opened fire in Brooklyn subway, injuring more than 20.

·         A Greek mother has been taken into custody under suspicion of murdering her third child by administering a seizure-causing drug over a period until the poor child succumbed. Her other two children had died within the last two years. It now looks suspiciously like the loss of these three little souls was the mother’s strategy to win the attention of her estranged husband.

The Greek press seem to be making an absolute circus of that, albeit tragic, family situation. A news reporter accused Putin of going on safari in Ukraine.                                                                             Have we succumbed to outright barbarianism?

                                               

 Certainly, the artist above seems to imply man, in his progress, has taken a wrong turning somewhere.

We need to broaden our personal perspective, as Martin Luther King, Jr explains:

‘An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.’

Mahatma Gandhi teaches us

‘The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.’

As Easter is celebrated this weekend and Orthodox Easter the following week, may we celebrate and practise being humane to one another and may this little sprig of our apple blossom symbolize          hope and  positivity for the future!