Greek-o-vision 2013!

It's that time of year again, the Greek-o-vision song contest, as I like to call it! This year we only had Greece and not Cyprus qualify for the final, but ofou they did really well coming in at 6th place overall! At one point Greece were top trending on Twitter worldwide! 

In case you missed it or you want to relive the experience, you can watch the performance here:

Ahh, so the Greek dudes were kicking it in their converse shoes, while playing the traditional bouzouki and singing in Greek for a change! (I think someone must have read last year's post I wrote here where I made that very suggestion...)

And of course we can't overlook the wonderful catchy lyrics of "Alcohol is free"... yes, well in this current climate free alcohol is the most appealing, enen!

Overall, a cracking performance and a really good result! I don't know why they just didn't let us win it though, even if the country is skint the Greeks will always we able to scrounge the money together for a party and to host the Eurovision! Maybe next year, who knows!


P.S. the moustache wipe at the end was awesome.

Greek Easter 2013

Xristos Anesti to the Greeks! Christ is risen!

So last night was Church night again for midnight mass. That meant more standing around with candles and waiting until midnight to commemorate the time when Christ rose from the dead.

This is where the candle is meant to be taken from the church and to your home without it being extinguished. The flame from the Church on this day is holy and is thought to be a great blessing if taken into your home. So all the peeps coming home drunk from the bars last night were not hallucinating if they saw cars glowing as they drove past... Nor was that drive thru cashier imagining things as the glowing car approached their window. It is highly likely that you may end up with candle wax on your car seats though, so beware!

Seeing as it is after midnight, technically the fast can be broken so generally there is a mini feast ready for when you get back from Church, some nice augolemoni always goes down well! Those lovely eggs we dyed a few days ago can also get smashing too!

And then there is Sunday where the mass "Xristos Anesti / Alithos Anesti" texts get sent to all your Greek contacts on your phone and then you prepare for the biggest feast of the year! Of course, this tends to consist of meat, meat and even more meat. You may need a nap from the meat coma...

I hope all those celebrating Easter today have an amazing day and take the opportunity for a fresh start, like Jesus did :)

Greek Easter - Good Friday

So it's Holy Week and the countdown to the biggest religious event for Greeks begins! On Thursday night is when eggs are dyed.

Usually they are dyed red to symbolise Jesus' blood, but other colours are also used these days. Every Greek home will have their special little basket with coloured eggs in and these will remain untouched until Sunday morning!

Tonight will be the Epitafio where we go to church late at night and walk with Jesus' 'tomb' around the local area, mourning his death. Of course it is a serious occasion for Greeks, but Church night definitely has its comical moments, and seeing as 'Typical Greek' covers the entertaining aspects of the Greek culture, forgive me for wanting to share that side of it! Stay tuned on twitter to be kept up to date with 'Epitafio Problems'! (No offense intended).

Come back for more on Easter celebrations this weekend!