Blossoms and Baking...

Following an age long tradition on Thursday, I went to my grandparents to make  flaounes, savoury delights made with cheese, eggs, flour and raisins. It was a lengthy process beginning on Wednesday night, breaking eggs to put in the cheese mixture and making the dough, leaving it overnight to be ready for the following morning.

In the morning I went to the bakery and bought some tachinopites, a sweet made especially for fasting and which goes well with a cup of coffee. At my grandmother's the garden smelt of orange blossoms early in the morning, a scent I always associate with Easter. After making sure the dough and cheesy mixture was ready we began making the flaounes. These savoury delights will be eaten after fasting has ended on Saturday morning after Holy Communion. I nibbled on a piece of tachinopitta as I watched my grandmother carefully roll the dough into a thin round shape and my aunt fill it with the cheesy mixture, ready on a tray to be baked. I took my share home and baked it, brushing beaten egg and sesame on each individual flaouna before popping them in the oven for an hour. The house smelt sweetly as the flaounes cooked merrily in the oven.

Thursday night at church was the reenactment of the Crucifiction and it is the custom to wear black. The bells chimed mournfully, the icons covered in black cloth. Yesterday was the Epitaph. We went to Sfalaggotissa Monastery where nuns chant the verses in unison. The Epitaph was decorated with white roses and candles, the scent of the roses mingling with incense and the slow burning of the candles on the Epitaph. When it was time the Epitaph was lifted and taken round the chapel. You are supposed to go under it as it goes round.

 

This morning's service was the first Resurrection. I had gone from six in the morning, the chapel still with the nuns' silent prayer. The morning was overcast with the chance of rain, when the nuns lifted the black cloth from the icons and banged the wooden seats announcing the Resurrection. It was touching, bringing a tear to the eye, the small chapel packed with people, waiting to take Holy Communion.

 

Tonight is the Resurrection when everyone goes to church at midnight and holds a candle to announce that Christ has risen from the dead. Afterwards we eat egg lemon soup with chicken and crack red eggs which we have painted. Thus the fasting and baking ends and everyone has the opportunity to enjoy a good souvla on Easter Sunday.

This year's Easter  was especially moving as a church in Famagusta was allowed to have a service after fifty years. Cypriots flocked to take part giving a much needed ray of hope to those waiting for a miracle of peace and reconciliation in Cyprus.