At 11:00 PM on Saturday night, we gathered for the Resurrection Service. At about 11:30, an official delegation of local leaders brought the Holy Fire to our parish from the airport (where it had just arrived from Jerusalem), and they handed it over to the mayor of Panorama. The mayor, in turn, handed it to our parish's proistamenos, or rector, and we headed back into the church.
At about 10 minutes before midnight, we distributed the Holy Fire, and then we headed out to the platform in the church's courtyard and read the Gospel and, finally, at 12:00, announced "Christ is risen!" to great rejoicing and fireworks. The babies were there and were quite amazed at everything that was going on. Benjamin was a little scared by all the fireworks, but overall they did pretty well considering they had been woken up to come.
In the photo above, you can see Paul in his green pajamas on the far right.
There were an unbelievable amount of people in and around the church until midnight, but after "Christ is risen," a good bit of the crowd thinned out and we proceeded with the Divine Liturgy, which ended around 2:30 AM. We then cracked eggs and all headed home.
Fortunately for me, two people had made magiritsa for me, which is the traditional Greek soup for breaking the fast. It is made from the entrails of lamb or goat (normally the one that is to be roasted the following day). It helps quite a bit in getting the body readjusted to eating meat (i.e. it stimulates, I believe, the reproduction of the necessary enzymes for breaking down meat).
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