Happy Easter from onboard Bedouin. You’re never too old to have the Easter Bunny visit and @chloe.skillman woke up to a few plastic Easter eggs hidden on deck.
Greece is the place to be for Easter. The celebration of Christ’s resurrection has only just begun here. Orthodox Easter Sunday is still a week away and this is an extraordinary place to be to celebrate the most cherished family time for Greeks.
Yesterday—on the Orthodox calendar, was the Saturday before Holy Week. As Chloe and I went into town, everyone was out celebrating the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
All the families were out and kids were visiting all the stores with Easter baskets. They would enter the shops and sing a song to the shopkeeper who would then put something in their basket. At the bakers we saw them give the children small baked cookies, the man at the hardware store gave them coins from his cash register, and still others handed out candy or small little gifts. The town was filled with families parading through town with their children who each carried decorated baskets. Even a few boys who seemed a little embarrassed, walked through town holding cute baskets because the reward for doing so was too great to miss out on.
I saw a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, who seemed to have some special needs. He came up to a group of older men who were sitting outside a cafe having their morning coffee—these men are fixtures at every cafe every morning—and the young man began singing an Easter song to them. Afterwards, all the men dug into their pockets and put coins in his basket. It was touching to see. This young man began to smile widely and skipped off to the next store.
You’re never too old to celebrate Easter. And we feel lucky to be celebrating it this year with the Greek people.
