Easter in the Balkans

As mentioned previously, Anne and Mark spent a couple of days in Thessoloniki in Greece.  They returned to Blagoevgrad on Saturday and then joined their Bulgarian friends at their summer getaway in the mountains.  Krassi and Zlatina had been so kind as to invite Anne and Mark to their Easter celebration.

Easter is a big deal in this part of the world.  Zlatina told us that there is a saying in Bulgaria that translates roughly as "Not every day is Easter."  This saying is meant to warn you away from eating, drinking and partying too much.  The underlying logic is that on Easter you can eat, drink, party, be lazy - whatever and however much you like.  But that is only because it's Easter.  It's a free pass.  The rest of the time - shape up.  So, Easter is the biggest holiday.  The Easter celebration is a big deal and being invited to one was quite an honor for Anne and Mark.

Nice day for an Easter feast.

... an honor that almost did not happen.  Anne and Mark were going to meet Krassi, Zlatina and others up at the summer house in the mountains shortly after returning from Greece.  The problem is that Anne and Mark had never been to the mountain house before and did not know how to get there.  Anne and Mark assumed that this would not be a problem, as they would enlist the help of one of the many local, highly-qualified taxi drivers.  Unfortunately, the taxi driver was not a local.  She knew the general area, but did not know exactly where Anne and Mark needed to go.  What solution did she come up with?  Get out here.

I got nothin.

Anne and Mark were stranded 25 minutes outside of town in front of a hotel that had long-since shuttered its doors.  Uh-oh.  Not long after the cab left, a passer by stopped to help the lost-looking Americans.  The interaction went like this:

Passer-by: a bunch of Bulgarian words.
Anne and Mark: No habla
Passer-by: more Bulgarian words,
Anne and Mark: show the guy a piece of paper with the name of the destination written on it.
Passer-by: points up the hill, offers use of cell phone
Anne and Mark: use the cell phone, call wrong number, make no progress.
Passer-by: motions use of cell phone, points up the hill.  Then he motions to the back of his truck where he shows that his truck is full of milk cans
Anne and Mark:  unsure of proper response ... "those are some nice milk cans, sir"
Passer-by: shows signs of frustration.  Now drops pointing only and engages in a full blown game of charades.  First word, two syllables.  Cell phone.  Then walk up the hill.
Anne and Mark: we need to go up the hill and buy a cell phone?
Passer-by leaves.

Anne and Mark then debated whether he was suggesting that the destination was within walking distance or that he would go there and tell our friends that we were on the road.  Fortunately, it was the latter and Krassi arrives shortly thereafter to take Anne and Mark the remainder of the way to the cottage (Anne and Mark never got an explanation as to the importance of the milk cans).

As mentioned earlier, Easter is a big deal in this part of the world.  Anne and Mark can attest to this fact in both Greece and Bulgaria.  The population of each country is primarily of the Orthodox Christian religion (although there are differences between the Greek and Bulgarian versions, Anne and Mark are not familiar with what exactly they are).  One common thing that Anne and Mark have noticed about Orthodox churches, as opposed to Catholic or Protestant churches, is the use of icons.  These are usually paintings of Jesus or saints, but can also be other small items that are related to them.  The icons are visible all over: large churches, people's homes, car dashboards... One other common place to see them is in small shrines.  These shrines are most commonly found outside churches, but can be located pretty much anywhere.  Most will have an icon or two and a place for worshippers to place lighted candles or flowers.

Small shrine in the city walls at Thessoloniki on Good Friday

The last day that Anne and Mark were in Thessoloniki was Good Friday, sometimes called "Holy Friday" around here.  (This year, Easter falls on the same date for Orthodox and Catholics, but usually it does not.)  Anne and Mark were out for an evening stroll through Thessaloniki when they ran into a huge crowd blocking the street.

Anne and Mark could not see what has happening, but guessed that this was related to the holiday (the cross gave it away).  Anne and Mark whipped around the corner and caught the procession as it approached the church.  After it passed, Anne and Mark started to head back to their hotel, only to run into another procession.  A brief clip of both processions is below.