Skorda's Seaside Taverna: day of red eggs

Skopelos and Virgin

-by Skorda

Swallow that campari moon
when first you see it
across the water,
rising round and new above the mountain.
Open your mouth and swallow
while youth holds its roundness near,
and you are running fearless in the dark.
Hold it inside, it is still warm
and you will need its light,
there, inside you.

Down the road of time, somewhere
after you’ve aged, traveled,
Explored, discovered.
And the dust around your doorway
has been pounded hard and smooth under your feet.
When you find yourself growing weary and bored,
when your eyes see only ruins,
and your heart is empty.
You may believe, in your exhaustion,
that this is truth, at last.
That the mystery has unraveled,
leaving no wilderness to explore or tame.
All secrets have been shared,
the frontier has dissolved.
Know then, with these thoughts,
you have been swallowed.

The warm belly of the beast
comforts with confining darkness
and lulls with rhythmic sounds
Murmuring to you,
Curl up and sleep,
just go to sleep.

Shake your head,
stretch your legs,
do not sleep now.

Remember what you know.
You swallowed the moon,
you hold it inside you.
Not as a magpie hoarding shiny things,
or wearing the moon for beauty
or bartering the moon for wealth.
You swallowed the moon for this moment.
When you will walk to the water’s edge,
open your mouth, release the moon
and let its light build you a pathway
across the wine dark sea.
©Skorda 2008

Thursday, April 24, 2008

day of red eggs

The Thursday before Easter ( Megali Pempti) is the traditional day for the dyeing of red eggs for Easter. The red color represents the redeeming blood of Christ, while the egg itself is symbolic of the tomb, to be cracked on Easter to symbolize the renewal of life and Christ’s emergence.
One explanation for use of red coloring is that women on the way to market to sell eggs passed by the Cross and blood from the piercings on Jesus’s hands and feet fell upon their eggs, coloring them red. Another explanation holds that the tradition began with Mary Magdalene, when she visited the Emperor Tiberias in Rome. According to this version, she brought him an egg as a symbol of the Resurrection.When she told the Emperor that Jesus had risen from the dead, (Christós Anesti),Tiberius is purported to have answered that a person could not rise from the dead anymore than the egg she was holding could turn red. At that moment, the egg is said to have turned a deep shade of red.
I know that some people dye their eggs using onion skins and vinegar, but I have never tried that. I use Krinos, the commercial dye available at Greek or Armenian grocers, www.krinos.com, or www.GreekInternetMarket.com.