So much for Easter eggs!

It seems two Orthodox churches in Greece have a unique way of celebrating the season. The Daily Mail reports:

Homemade rockets streaked through the sky during a traditional Easter celebration in the village of Vrontados at midnight today [Saturday], on the Greek island of Chios.

As a variation of the Greek habit of throwing fireworks during the celebration of the Orthodox Christian service at midnight before Easter Sunday, two rival church congregations in the town, the congregations of the Agios Markos and Panagia Erithiani churches, perform a 'Rocket War'.




Each congregation fires thousands of homemade rockets across the town, with the objective of hitting the bell tower of the church of the other side.

There are many different versions of the story behind this tradition in Vrontados.

The first version tells a story that the custom goes back to the 19th century, when the Ottoman occupiers confiscated the cannons on the island over fear they would be used in an uprising. So the locals resorted to fire rockets instead. This became the traditional annual Rocket War.

The second story also states that the tradition was born during the Ottoman occupation. People from the island were prohibited to celebrate Easter the way they were used to. The people from the churches of San Maria and San Marco decided to have a fake war with rockets to keep the Ottomans away. And indeed, the Ottomans were frightened by the sudden violence. They kept a safe distance while the rockets were fired. In the meantime, the communities could celebrate Jesus' resurrection in their churches.

There's more at the link, including more (and larger) photographs.

Looks like a lot of fun - provided they're careful. I'd hate some kid to get his or her eye shot out while the adults are making a racket with their rockets . . . no amount of Easter eggs could compensate for that.

Given the political partisanship in Washington DC at present, I'm tempted to suggest that Republicans and Democrats adopt the custom and launch rockets at each other. Unfortunately, given the bad blood between them, they'd probably equip the rockets with warheads, causing an unacceptable loss of life - but hey, wait a minute. They're politicians! This might work even better with warheads!





Peter