The flame is then flown by Olympic Airways, accompanied by high-ranking priests and government officials to Athens airport where it is met by an honor guard to the small church of Agia Anargyroi in the Plaka. From there the light is distributed to churches all over Attika and the rest of Greece.
As the Saturday evening approaches, people congregate in the church carrying with them unlit candles. At midnight the priest announces the resurrection of Christ ("Christos anesti") and lets the people light their candles of the Holy Flame taken from Christ's nativity cave in Jerusalem. After the rituals, the priest blesses the food carried by people to the church and these are served on Easter Sunday.
After the late-night resurrection service of the Greek Orthodox Church, resurrection soup mageritsa is served. On Easter Sunday, spit-roast lamb is the centerpiece of the table. In the early morning the spits will be turning in the courtyards and as the lamb "kokoretsi" is slowly cooked, and the aroma of the roasting lamb whets the appetite of the hungry souls. Christopsomon, a round, flat loaf marked with a cross and decorated with red Easter eggs, is another Greek Easter delicacy.
It begins with Apokreas, which is to Orthodox what Mardi Gras and Carnival is to Catholics. In Athens the last two weekends of Apokreas people dress up in costume and go to the Plaka, hitting each other with plastic clubs that squeak, and throwing confetti. In Thrace and Macedonia young women in traditional clothing called the Lazarins go around the villages singing traditional Easter songs.
