2021
Christos Anesti! george chigas
Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti! Christ has risen! Indeed, He has risen!
S
aying that to people as they arrived at the house was about as religious as it got for our family at Easter. I think Aunt Filitsa was the only one who really made it a point of going to church. The men of course have a built-in excuse. We have to start the fire for the lamb. But it’s true. The women in the family are much holier than the men. And that’s a good thing. It compensates for our disproportionate evil. Thanks to the women in the family we can still look God in the eye and be reasonably sure he won’t strike us dead, even if we do deserve it. And the men are needed to start the fire for the lamb, which is why God always waits until after Easter to strike us dead. Starting the Easter fire is not something you do well the first try. It takes years of practice to learn the finer points of starting and more importantly tending the fire as it’s cooking the lamb. It’s a knowledge that’s passed down from father to son over generations. It’s like fishing or certain odd mannerisms like grinding one’s teeth that become a family trait and get printed on your forehead as if to say, “I’m Bill’s son.” It’s like the suffix at the end of English names: Richardson or Robertson, for example. If fact in Greek “-opulous” means “son of,” if I’m not mistaken. So, for example, “Eliopulous” means “son of Eli.” But I may be wrong. You see my generation didn’t learn a lot of the language. We went to Greek school when we were young, but that was pretty much useless. A few years ago I felt guilty that I couldn’t speak the tongue of our ancestors, so I bought some Greek language tapes and played them in the car on the way to work. I learned a couple sentences like, “Ti hora fevgi sto layoforio,” which means if I remember correctly, “What time is the resurrection?” But yes, the fire that cooks the spring lamb is crucial, almost as important as the lamb itself. And attaching the lamb to the spit is perhaps the most important ritual of the Easter holiday. It’s done the night before in the kitchen with wire and pliers. It takes two people, two men, to pull the wires tight enough to secure the lamb so it won’t come loose. It’s definitely a man’s job like starting the fire. (That makes two reasons God has to keep us around until at least after Easter: to start the fire and fasten the lamb to the spit.) And now that I think of it, the whole process of laying out the lamb and tying its legs and body to the steel spit is very much like a crucifixion. 122
The Lowell Review
