How did the people of Northern Epirus dye Easter eggs during the years of the prohibition of religions?

OR abolition of religion from the Albania in 1967, acted for the National Greek Minority not only as a violation of a fundamental human right, but also as a heavy blow to the unbreakable relations with Hellenism and its basic cultural treasury.

All the more so when the regime undertook a campaign of destruction and elimination of the religious structure. At the same time, it filled the large gaps that were created in the traditional customary psyche of ordinary Greeks and their community with new ones, which, even when based on Christian tradition, served the ideology of the regime and Albanian nationalism.

Kalonetagios – The custom of Holy Thursday in Drymades, Himara

Before 1967, there was a greater religious and ethnic consistency in ancestral social customs and traditions for two reasons:

1. There was a closed Traditional Society. 2. through these customs the community sought its self-definition as Greek Orthodox (in relation to the albanians).

After 1967, there was no group celebration.

Secondly, the celebration was a family affair and within the family there was a division related to age and the relationship with tradition and Greece, meaning that the elderly continued the customs fanatically while the younger ones slowly gave up and moved away from these customs.

Each family, after being informed about the dates of the holiday calendar through the Greek radio and television that they secretly listened to, began to prepare for Easter. Housewives transformed separate areas of the house into sacred spaces.

«First of all, we had to keep what was happening inside the house a secret, respect the sacred space that mother created in those days, and let the older siblings go out at night to throw the shells from the red eggs into the streets.» – remembers Mr. A. Maglaras from Vodino.

In these places, all the mysteries were performed in an improvised manner, even the Passion of Holy Week, because the Hoxha regime demolished the holy churches of the area or turned them into warehouses, gouging out the eyes of the Saints and destroying the icons. The Greeks of Albania each had an icon of the Virgin Mary in a hidden place in their homes and lit the lamp during the holidays.

«When it was Easter we couldn't go to church to celebrate Easter, but we lit the candle next to the icon of the Virgin Mary and Christ that our grandmother had under her bed. However, some people in remote villages would place candles outside the churches, provoking the wrath of the Police, who would conduct investigations and if the person who did so was arrested, he would be considered an enemy of the people and sentenced to three to ten years in prison. I still remember the trial of Mr. M. Masiou from Dervitsiani with three years in prison because they found religious images in his possession.» – Mr. L. Bountalis from Vouliarates tells us.

Even for the food that would be prepared on this day, there had to be an excuse. The traditional food was and is lamb in a casserole on vine branches and bright bread without eggs, though.

Housewives secretly dyed eggs red on maundy thursday. Because They Could not buy dye from the store because it aroused suspicion, the dyeing of eggs was done using natural means:

1. shallot. 2. ash tree. 3. acorns.

«I boiled eggs with dried onion skins. i couldn't Buy paint from the store because if they caught me they'd ask me what i wanted and then they'd watch the house.." - says Mrs. G. Dakou from Dervitsiani.

«I remember when I was little, my grandmother would dye eggs with shallots and tell us that it made them pretty to eat. Then she would collect the eggshells in her apron and throw them in the bathroom and not in the trash because they might be found." - remembers Mrs. Dakou's granddaughter.

The communist regime, as with other holidays, had taken care to fill the customary void caused by the abolition of the Easter holiday. Due to the temporal proximity and common folk traditions of May Day with Easter, because according to folk tradition, both holidays manifest the rebirth of nature.

So he transferred the Easter celebration to May Day, while simultaneously managing to give the traditional May Day an ideological communist connotation, thus achieving several goals.

But ordinary people also benefited from this and, due to the proximity of time, they kept easter Eggs for may day, justifying the color with red May Day.

«The mother dyed the eggs on Maundy Thursday, guarded them, and took them out on May Day, saying that she dyed them red for the celebration of May Day.» -recalls N. Kotsias from Delvino.

On Clean Monday there was no mass exodus, but the members began Lent within the family, which again had to find an excuse.

Halloween was not particularly emphasized in our area because it is a celebration that requires a mass and collective outing and could not take place.

However, this situation changed in 1991, when with the opening of the borders, members of the Greek National Minority could celebrate the greatest holiday of Christianity, the Resurrection of Our Lord Christ FREELY.

Elena KALOUDI (The voice of OMONIA, April 2009)