The Cult's very own Melting Pot Celebration!

Xristos Anesti!

Easter at the Goutis household (I think there are a ton more pics and videos, but these will do for now):
Bread

Cookies

Eggs

Preparing the Lamb

Lamb Cooking

Where was my invite?!

I want all the bread,lamb, and cookies.

I absolutely love those vibrant eggs!!!!!!

Traditional Greek Easter eggs are the dark red. It symbolizes the blood of Christ and his rebirth.

Saturday night (or early early Sunday morning) everybody gets one of those eggs at church. My Papou (grandpa) used to play a game with us. Each person holds their egg and one person hits the other person's egg with theirs. And then the other person gets to go. First person whose egg breaks is the loser. My Papou always used to win. haha. I didn't realize that this was a traditional Greek "game" until I just looked it up.

Those pictures are sooo cool. I like your squiggle cookies.

Uh, I don't know how to spell it. They're called Kaludia (that's probably close enough). They're basically butter cookies.

They look exactly like Italian Easter (Christmas, Baptism, Wedding, Holy Communion, Any Sacrament Really/Special Occasion) cookies.

The top row, the twisted ones, they're more common. They taste the same, just look different. Sometimes there are sesame seeds on them too.

Sometimes my granny put sesame on hers, sometimes powdered sugar, sometimes a light icing glaze. They keep forever and she and my aunts (and now my mom and her sisters) made about ten thousand of them.

Dream on! We do that too. People usually hit the first eggs at church after that everlasting service that takes 5 hours, then one in the morning with the family, and then one every time they feel like until they finish the eggs.
So far I've beaten 4 eggs but I've got beaten twice.

It's quite shocking to hear this might be traditional. I thought everybody did that. Including the red eggs. Do you paint them on Thursday? This is how we do it over here.

Well, your whole country is Orthodox - so you would think that it's normal.

I don't know when they paint them. I've never taken part in that. Well, I'm sure I have, just never paid much attention.

I didn't stay for the whole super long service this year because I had a fever. I left right when we started going inside from outside. So I didn't get an egg.

But I did get an egg at my cousin's house - and it got cracked by the first person I played.

One of my best friends in high school was Ukrainian, and she made me a traditional painted Easter egg one year and it was beautiful. She told me to be careful with it because she didn't know how to drain it, and since it was supposed to be a keepsake, we figured it would just eventually dry up on the inside. LOL, we were airheads. I was vacuuming my room one day, like months and months later, and I bumped the shelf it was on and knocked it down to the floor. Holy shit, what a putrid mess that was.

Eww gross!

Did you barf?

No, but I gagged, fo sho.

fo sho!

Do you say something like "Christ is resurrected!" "Indeed he is!" when you hit the eggs?

Not when we hit the eggs. But that's what we say.

You say:
Xristos Anesti! "Christ is risen"

And the response:
Alithos Anesti! "Truly he is risen"

Haha English translation on the spot fail. Yours sound so legit. But I guess it's the same thing, really. I think we're supposed to greet each other like this for 40 days or something. Or until the Ascension. And then the greeting changes to something related to that, for a day or so.

I feel silly for asking, but do you guys actually believe, or is this just for tradition's sake?

For me, it's tradition and the fact that mum comes from a religious background, so I can't just blatantly tell her I'm not sure. Verging on not believing. I don't think most people who follow the tradition actually believe it, but it's pretty much inertia. People in rural areas are more religious though. I only know one person who doesn't celebrate Easter, so maybe most people do it for their families and so on. I don't know, I may be wrong, but this is the impression I'm getting. It's the same as making the cross sign when passing in front of a church. Inertia, mostly.

I believe in God. I'm 99% on Christianity. If Christianity is the right religion, then Orthodoxy is the right form of Christianity. I know this without a doubt.

And for that, a lot of you here will now try to convince me how stupid I am. I'm not going to argue though, so don't waste your breath.

You work out a lot, and Jesus flipped tables in temples. I figure you guys have plenty in common.

Like who?

I've seen a lot of people here post pictures about how people who believe in God are stupid.

My nigga as well.

Thanks guys, that really means a lot.

I too believe in God and I also thought saying that here would be followed with post about being stupid or crazy. Good to know that is not true my niggas.

It's "in" and edgy right now to be an atheist and to make sure everyone knows it so that's why the internet is full of them. It's like that one joke. How can you tell someone's an atheist? Wait a few minutes, they'll tell you themselves.

But I think that's been starting to go away now that it's gotten too hip. Buddhism is on the rise of a big come back, what with the weed becoming more legal and stuff.

I just hate all the "I'm smarter than you" and posting all the arguments.

You're an atheist - great! You found what works for you and I'm happy for you!

You're a Buddhist - great! I'm happy you found something you connect with!

I'm an Orthodox Christian. Now you be happy for me for finding what works for me!

I've tried, and read about, and researched a ton of other religions and I've read The God Delusion and the other classic atheist text. I've come full circle to the religion I was raised with.

I, for one, tolerate every religion and even no religion at all. What I don't tolerate is being harassed or having it stuck down my throat - whatever it is, atheism, Christianity, Islamism, Judaism, Pantheism. I don't care what people believe in and I don't think faith makes you stupid. I can't say I don't believe in anything, I like to think there is a higher presence, but I can't stand our church. It may be contradictory, but in our country the church is mostly state-financed (which is not constitutional) and also the biggest business. More corruption than in the government, and that is A LOT.

It's one thing to dislike having religion shoved down your throat and seeing all the negative things(I've been there) it's another to just generalize and call everyone, who believes a certain way,stupid. Pete shared an awesome post by J. David Osborne:

People can believe in God and still be smart. It's unprovable, a belief in a higher power,but it's personal. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, don't assume someone's an idiot because they see something mystical in the rain and the trees and their fellow man. If you do, unfortunately, that makes you a bigot.

I'm gonna come back in here with California culture stuff just so this thread doesn't derail too much.

That quote is so true. Two of the greatest Romanian intellectuals today are declared Christians, one of them even wrote a book called "On Angels". They're both people I admire very much, and I don't think less of them just because they are certain of something I am not.

I love our state flower and a couple of my neighbors have them in their yards

I'm pretty sure we're also the only state with Ollalieberries which are a hybrid berry of marionberries and raspberries...something like that. Anyway it's perfectly tart and delicious with a good vanilla ice cream.

Not trying to derail anything, here. Just wanna throw in my two cents. As an atheist, I really don't care what other people believe in. A person's moral beliefs, and those beliefs' effect on their behavior, seem to to evolve according to contemporary philosophies, so it's hardly ever a problem in my own life. What I will do is speak up when those beliefs, based on millennia-old texts composed of bigoted, irrational and outright wrong information, slow the moral and/or intellectual progress of society.

Here's a little bit of Austin:

This is Leslie, the most famous homeless person in the city. He ran for mayor 3 times. He died on March 8th, which has officially been declared "Leslie Day" by our current mayor.

I only met him once, during one drunk night on 6th street two years ago. I really wish I could remember what we talked about.

I saw him during the Austin meet-up. Thinking back, I am the only one still around from that meet-up. I don't know what that means.

I was around back then, but nobody ever invited me to or told me about shit. I wasn't cool enough back then.

Dude, all you needed to do was post more in GD back then and you would've seen anyone and everyone was welcome.

Yeah! Even I went!

I wasn't informed either. Whatever. I was probably busy.

You were busy being underage.

That used to take up a lot of my time.

I was finally able to scan some pictures of the town my grandmother is from. It's a small mining town that was very Americanized.

These houses were called The Three Marias and the bosses of the mines lived there.

The jail that my uncle was thrown in for a few days as a young boy of 7 or 10 for stealing food because he was too poor to buy any. I posted a story somewhere here based on his story.

The mine and main road in the town.

Good ol' outdoor cooking in layers of clothes.

Those are pretty cool.

Me gusta.

You guys, mum's making tortillas with pork today, so I just wanted to know what I should fill them with.

Typical add ons are chopped onions and cilantro. Really, though its whatever you like. Sometimes I'll have them with chihuahua cheese, sour cream, an avacado slice and chili sauce. Most of the time its onions and clinatro with either green or red sauce. Enjoy!