In Rhodes
In Rhodes on Lazarus Saturday, the children go from house to house and sing "Lazarus". In the old days, on this day, no farmer went to his field to work, because they believed, how everything,what they caught would wither. Only dry twigs were allowed to be collected for lighting the ovens on Holy Week for baking the buns.…………..
On Holy Thursday at night the inhabitants light the kalafounos.
This is a great fire that symbolizes the burning of Judas and which must remain lit until Easter Sunday.
On Holy Saturday the youngest men of the village gather wood from the forest and light a fire outside the church. In it, young and old fly in March and make a wish.
Special and special, with different customs on each island that are kept "reverently" and passed down from generation to generation, Easter is celebrated in the Dodecanese.
An important difference, compared to most parts of the country, is that in the Dodecanese on Easter day the spear is not included in the menu, kokoretsia and related delicacies.
The table of the Resurrection includes the traditional magiritsa (on the night of Holy Saturday after the Risen Christ) and on Sunday noon the "Lampriatis" which is a lamb or goat in the oven stuffed with rice and entrails, which in the villages of Rhodes is called "kappamas".
In Patmos, Holy Week is a unique experience
The custom that makes Easter in Patmos special, is the Washbasin ceremony, on the morning of M.. Thursday, which is the representation of the Last Supper: the abbot, just like Jesus, washes the feet of twelve monks sitting around the large platform, like the students at the Last Supper.
On Good Friday, the Apostasy is represented in the Monastery of Agios Ioannis and on the same night all the epitaphs meet in the squares of Skala and Chora. The Resurrection also takes place in the monastery on Easter day, the Gospel is read in seven languages.
In Kalymnos
It is impressive the Resurrection on the island of Kalymnos, with the improvised dynamites that are thrown and which literally shake the island.
In Astypalea
On the island of Astypalea from the characteristics of Easter, is the preparation of milk cookies with goat's milk , sugar, cinnamon and the famous local saffron while they also make brilliant pies that also contain saffron.
In Leros, one of the old customs that exist are the inhabitants of the island, in the early hours of Good Friday to visit the cemeteries of the island and to take care of the graves of their relatives while on the eve of the Great Canon the custom of "vines" takes place on the island where the inhabitants under the coordination of the church collect bundles of vines which burn making incense sticks.
In Karpathos
In Karpathos the Easter customs stand out in Olympus, where residents follow traditions of mourning and mourning during Holy Week, but also a glorious celebration, which culminates on Brilliant Tuesday. They leave their traditional colorful costumes only on Holy Week, when they replace them with a "mourning" attire.
After the moving Epitaph of Good Friday, women prepare for Holy Saturday, the brilliant ofto for the next day, that is, a stuffed goat or lamb, mainly from rice.
On Easter Monday the women go to the bakeries, to bake Easter pies with mizithra and spices and then in the cemetery to whitewash and decorate the tombs with flowers. On Olympics, the Olympians decorate the icons of the church with colored handkerchiefs and carry them in their hands., heading back to the cemetery.
In Kos
In Kos, while the elders are engaged in Easter work and church services, the children are preparing for the Resurrection. They get bigger keys than the old locks, tie the key with gunpowder with a rope and put the nail in the hole of the key, on the night of the Resurrection they hit him hard on the wall to fire. Others cut long strips of paper, put on the edge of each strip of gunpowder and a wick, they wrap it triangularly, so that the wick that is lit is protruding from the time the priest says "Christ is Risen".
On the morning of M.. Saturday, the church is paved with small purple scented mountain flowers called brilliant. The housewives make the shiny pies and the stuffed lamb.
In Kasos
On the island of Kasos stand out from the food the cassio dolmadas that are a local specialty, which they manufacture by the thousands(!) the women of the island while one of the most characteristic festivals is that of Ai Giorgis in Hadies, on Tuesday after Easter in which all the inhabitants of the island participate.