Greece: Kalamata Easter
Photo by Jaci Daskarolis
Greeks have just finished celebrating Easter, their biggest holiday of the year. Perhaps the most unusual celebration of this holiday takes place in Kalamata, which experiences its largest annual traffic jams during the Easter weekend as Athenians make the three-hour drive to celebrate with their relatives there.
Easter in Greece pairs the serenity and sobriety of a midnight church service with the setting off of fireworks outside churches. An enormous meal with family follows the midnight church service, with young people partying and arriving home in the wee hours of Easter morning just as the older family members are rising to prepare the goat or lamb for the an all-out gluttonous day-long eating session on Easter itself.
Men in Kalamata—traditionally young men, although it is not unusual to see grandfathers participating these days—do something else, too. They make “sa-ee-tes” by taking pipes and filling them with gunpowder. They cover one end of the pipes and then meet in a stadium, taking turns spinning in circles and flinging the flaming “sa-ee-tes” away from them. Nearly every year someone winds up in the hospital.
As crazy as this behavior may sound, it actually has an historical reference point. When the Turks imposed their rule on Greece, young men were trained in the use of gunpowder. These trainings took place during Easter time; during this period, trainings could be disguised as celebratory activities.
Forget the Trojan horse. Beware a Kalamata man with fireworks.
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