Easter in Corfu

A Venetian inheritance

Easter in Corfu blends Orthodox and Catholic traditions with Venetian customs; since Venetian rule both churches have celebrated it together. The most characteristic days are Holy Friday and Holy Saturday.

On Holy Friday, from two in the afternoon, the processions of the epitaphs set out from the parishes of the town — 33 of them, for the 33 years of Christ’s life — each with a choir, a brass band, large candles and banners, and at ten in the evening the epitaph of the Metropolitan Church follows with the clergy and all of Corfu’s bands playing solemn funeral marches.

Earthquakes and broken pots

At six in the morning on Holy Saturday, in the Church of Panagia ton Xenon, the faithful beat the pews and shake the icons and lamps to re-enact the earthquake that followed the Resurrection. At nine, the relics of St Spyridon are carried in procession together with the epitaph — a custom kept since 1574, when the Venetians banned Orthodox processions on Good Friday for security reasons.

At eleven, at the signal of the First Resurrection, church bells ring across the town and people throw the botides — clay jugs full of water, tied with red ribbon — from windows and balconies hung with red cloth. Breaking them is meant to drive away bad luck, and locals and visitors take pieces home. The custom is found only in Corfu: the Catholic Venetians broke old jugs at New Year, and the Orthodox Corfiots moved the custom to Easter. The bands then march through the streets again, and shortly before midnight the Resurrection is celebrated on the Upper Spianada with the march Grekoi, drums, flares and fireworks.