45-year-old Katherine, married with two daughters, lives in a village in Greece near the Peloponnese’s Kiato where she also met her husband. Faraway Australia though, is close to her heart – and to her family’s. This isn’t just because her husband also happens to have relatives there. Katherine is the youngest sibling of three brothers who unlike her, have spent most of their lives in Australia. In fact, her most memorable Easter was in Australia, celebrated “in a special and unusual way.”
Born in Greece in 1980, Katherine first visited Australia in 1990 when she was ten, for two years. This is when she actually met her brothers for the first time too, and celebrated her special Easter with them.
“That Easter in Australia was the only Easter I spent with them – with all my family. I remember my brothers hiding chocolate Easter eggs in the backyard there, with me trying to find them. They called it a ‘Treasure Hunt’, something not done in Greece at that time. This is my fondest and most unusual Easter memory as it bonded me with my brothers,” Katherine says.
Katherine’s parents migrated to Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia in the 1950s where her three brothers were born. They returned to Greece in 1974 as her dad wanted to become a priest.
“I wasn’t born yet. My two older brothers found school in Greece difficult and so returned to Australia staying with my mum’s sister where they finished school and continued onto university. In the meantime, mum would often travel back to Australia to see them,” Katherine explains.
“My brothers, now aged 65, 59 and 56, were born there and are all married. I have eight nieces and nephews in Australia. Since then, my younger brother later moved to Greece. So my memories from my first visit to Australia in 1990-1992 are the sweet memories of a child actually spending time with her brothers.”
Of that Easter, Katherine also recalls, “gathering at the church and the family barbecue the next day and a road trip to Nelson Bay in NSW.”
She says that Easter here in Greece is “more emotional because of dad being a priest,” and describes hearing his sermons and being one of four, head girls standing at the front with the epitaphio (flower decorated, representative tomb of Jesus) at the nightly procession, with her dad leading. On Holy Saturday after the Anastasi at midnight, she stays on at the church until 2.30am.
She adds, “at home during the Holy Week of Easter, I smell the church, literally and metaphorically. I smell it on dad’s clothes. Having dad as a priest makes me feel much more intimate with Easter.”
Katherine talks about fasting, something which she adheres to during the Easter period.
“Apart from food, you have to cleanse your soul, your thoughts, particularly remembering to enact this at Easter. As dad always says, ‘you must first be a good person in your soul, beyond and during fasting’,” she says.
Claiming to enjoy all Easter customs, Katherine particularly delights in painting Easter eggs with her daughters: “Not just dying them! We get really arty and spend a whole day doing this as is our tradition.”
I mention, “Hey, what about the leaf with the stocking?” and Katherine knows exactly what I’m talking about because her mother still decorates the red eggs this way, as my mother did. Katherine also mentions a special tradition which she is also fond of – making koulourakia (Easter biscuits) every year with her mother-in-law, “Yiayia Litsa” adding, “my daughters help too.”
Of her daughters, Katherine says she has brought them up talking to them about Australia.
“I show them photos of our house there and other memories, and they also get an update about Australia almost every year in summer here in Greece when my nieces – their cousins visit. They are looking forward to going one day,” she says,
Katherine then adds without pause: “The first thing we do on Easter Sunday is call my family in Australia for blessings before we prepare for the day. We spend it out in the garden with friends and neighbours coming by, with music, eating lamb and with all the other traditions until the evening.”
“Our Easters in Greece are wonderful. Yet, an even more ideal Easter would be one where my entire Aussie family is here, spending it all together. That would actually be a dream come true!” she adds.
“Speaking about my Greek Orthodox Easter experiences makes me very emotional. I miss my family in Australia – my brothers, my nieces, some of whom have their own kids. I realise how much I’ve missed out on, being so far away. We’re a very close family, who feel even closer during Easter in sharing our Greek Orthodox rituals.”
