Easter in Leonidion
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This year (2019) (Greek Orthodox) Easter occurred a week later than in the UK and we decided to watch the celebrations in Leonidion.
To quote a local guide book "Leonidion is a place blessed with unique beauty and here the celebration of Easter finds its true meaning and the lilacs have a reason to bloom."
The good news is that there is an excellent camp site near Leonidion (Camping Semeli 37.14948 22.891847) the bad news is that it is 4km out of town on a busy road and most of the Easter celebrations take place late at night. If you plan to walk in and out of town you will need a good torch and a hi-viz jacket. There is no public transport and little chance of a taxi at Easter weekend.
A short walk from the campsite along the beach is the small village of Plaka with several restaurants and two small supermarkets.
At 23:00 on Good Friday each of the five parishes in Leonidion process to the town square with their Epitaphios (I had to look it up as well) to hold a short joint service.
Although the mood is supposed to be somber on Good Friday there are a few rogue lanterns and fireworks which should really be reserved for Easter Sunday.
At midnight on Easter Saturday as the moment of the resurrection approaches the night sky over Leonidion is filled with 100s of lanterns.
At 19:00 on Easter Sunday there is a church service in main square conducted by five priests apparently in the very rare Tsakonion Dialect (a modern descendant of Laconian Doric, a dialect of Ancient Greek).
Eventually the priests give way to a group of dancers accompanied by a traditional(?) folk band of two clarinets, a violin, a bouzouki, drums and both male and female singers.
Very quickly the dancers find themselves sharing the dance floor with teams of men determined to launch their fire lanterns (with varying degrees of skill).
Most lanterns were cylindrical about 2 metres tall and fired by an oil soaked rag however a few more spectacular ones were spherical and about 3 metres in diameter. Most lanterns were launched successfully and disappeared high into the sky where they presumably burnt out and descended harmlessly. A few failures descended on the town still burning. Nobody seemed to mind.