Happy Easter!

We went into town last night for the Easter candle-lighting ritual in the main square.

We were a bit wiser to events after last year, so we'd learnt to buy our candles on the night, which came equipped with little wax shades so we didn't get dripped on this year.

We also knew not to bother to try to get a place in the front row, since we knew that about 5 minutes before the lit candles were about to emerge from the church we'd be buffeted out the way by a stampede of Greek matriarchs bustling their way to the front.

Clearly it is important for your social standing here who gets the light of Jesus first.

Our foreign minister, Dora, was in Chania again, so we guess this is maybe her home town or something, and the square was filled with the usual guard of honour made up of what looked like the most bored national service conscripts you could imagine.

We got a taxi home from town, which meant we couldn't even attempt to get our lighted candles over the threshold, although we did see several cars on the road with people huddling over still flaming candles.

As we got near our house we saw people streaming away from the little church on the hill nearby us with their candles - so maybe next year we will brave the local church instead of the main cathedral