The mother of all pots. You can imagine the shrieks when this one fell.
You can see a red pot in the air, dropping
Saturday morning we went into Old Corfu Town again to see the biggest event of their year. They throw ceramic jugs filled with water from 3-4 story balconies that are draped with red clothes. This is a tradition in Corfu only. The loud noise is supposed to scare Satan away. (Remember this is done the day before Easter.) The noise when these pots of all sizes flew and hit the cobblestones, was like gun shot and very LOUD. The throngs of Greeks hooted and hollered and clapped as it all happened. When the pot throwing stopped then three bands marched through the very crowded streets. 
3 comments:
Oooh . . . I love that! Local color. Did you know about it or fall upon it?
We knew ahead of time that this was going to happened. We were also warned to stay under something, which we did.
The origins of this custom are not known. I lived on Kapodistriou for four years and my children loved chucking the pots out of the windows. However, as I said the origins are unknown but I have certainly never heard that the noise scares Satan away!!! I think it is either far more Pagan and to do with the beginning of Spring and getting rid of old things or even religious, showing anger at Judas Iscariot. The second being the most likely to me as Easter is the time that the Judas trees flower all over the island and their purple blossoms are believed to represent Judas Iscariot blushing in shame at his betrayal of Christ.
Where did the idea of the noise scaring Satan come from???
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