The flowers of Azogires April

We are going to try to give you some idea of what can be seen as the seasons change in Azogires. We can’t guarantee that this will be a regular feature, it depends on the goats!

What we show won’t necessarily be rare or unusual flowers but they will be Azogires flowers.

All the flowers above were photographed on 13 April 2009 and all were within 200 metres of the Alfa Cafenion.

Easter Epitaph

This is the Epitaph of Christ. Every year on Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, we dressed the coffin of Christ with season flowers and we place an icon of Jesus inside. We all come in worship it, kiss it as if we would kiss a dead family member - some people actually do cry. The priest then comes out and sprays on everyone a perfume and a wonderful scent from a plant known as mira, just as they did 2000 years ago on Christ’s grave. After everyone has prayed, four men carry the coffin three times round the church while the bell is ringing. Then they hold it above the entrance and the people pass below it, therefore being blessed by Christ himself.

The priest then takes the icon into the altar space, which is the most sacred position in a church where he makes spiritual contact with the heavens, and prays over it.
While this is taking place the local women are chanting Easter burial hymns.

The priest makes his peace with god and then he comes out and goes to the grave and reads little papers with names of dead people given to him by those attending the service; by reading those names on Christ’s grave the angels have a clearer signal and they place the souls of those dead people in a better position in heaven.

The priest than gives a sermon to the people and asks them to take the flowers from the grave home with them. These flowers are than used as protection in the house either by being burned as incense or just placed by an icon.

The Secret School

THE SECRET SCHOOL
There were times in Azogires when the children were forced to learn another religion and another language; this was the way the Ottoman Empire tried to force people to forget their original Greek and Byzantine roots. To prevent this the people developed the secret school - schools that for several hundreds of years were moved from basements of houses, to caves into the hills, to bushes, up in forests and in dark corridors and cracks on the hillsides, in fac all over Greece and Crete. They spread like wildfire and became the origins of many revolts for freedom and religion. The teaching always took place quietly in the dark or by candlelight, and the children were sworn to secrecy – swearing that even if tortured, they would never tell where their school was.
One of the last one in Azogires was right in front of the Turks eyes’, located in the neighbourhood of Kriariana, near the monastery. In those days all the houses in that neighbourhood were connected, that is they had doors in between them so if you were wanted or on the run, you could kick open doors and run away through someone else’s house. The secret school was located in the basement of one of these Venetian houses, a 3 flat home with only two entrances. The children would study in the dark and if ever it would be given away, there was a secret tunnel that only the house owner knew of, not even the teacher knew about it. The tunnel was beneath the floor and would be opened by removing some soil and a big flat stone. The children would crawl in to it and the house owner then closed it from outside, placing a clay pot on top of it so the Turks had no idea what was going on. They had just watched 20 or 30 children go in to this house and now they could not find them! The tunnel would come out by the river somewhere but to this day we don’t know exactly where, perhaps you can find it next time you visit Azogires?

THE FESTIVAL OF ST.JOHN THE HERMIT IN AZOGIRES

The weather was great this year on St. John the Hermit's festival.

About 60 people showed up and most of them remained after for the traditional feast that has been taking place for the past 300 years; a feast that has been handed down from generation to generation of the
Koukoutsakis family.

Since St. John is our family protector, this year as every year, Tony cooked some of the most delicious steaks I've ever had in my life and furthermore, the wine was great.

You should come next year on the 8th of October!

And don't forget that the Hermit is one of the most powerful Saints in Crete so, if you need something in your life just call out to him and he will help you.

Early Easter!

Easter Sunday came two hours early to Azogires when the Easter midnight celebrations being held at 9.30 pm on Easter Saturday!

The reason for the early arrival was that the priest, Papa Eftixis, had to do another 10 or so services in the surrounding villages that evening and had to start early and finish late to fit them all in.

The church of the Holy Fathers was full with about 50 people as the bell was rung to start the 30 minute service. The service came to an end with the announcement “Christos Anasti” (Christ is risen), the lighting of the Easter candles and a procession three times round the church.

After the procession, and as the service was continuing, an effigy of Judas was burnt in the courtyard outside the Monastery to the accompaniment of some very loud fireworks.

At the end of the service the Lenten fast was broken in the Alpha Kafenion with a traditional meal of sweet cake, hard boiled eggs dyed red, kalitsunia and Mageiritsa – a delicious soup made from the intestines of sheep or goats!