St. Lazarus Day
This holy day is on the Saturday that precedes Megali Evdhomada (Holy Week, whose dates vary annually in relating to the date of Greek Orthodox Easter) and on that day, which marks the resurrection of Lazarus, housewives make special rolls for their children known as 'lazarakia', which are in the shape of a man wrapped in a shroud.
- In northern Ipirus, young men carrying swords and bells go from house to house singing songs that are sung only on this day , and receive little gifts from the housewives.
- In Thessaly and Macedonia, it is the women and young girls who go from house to house in teams, and are known as 'Lazarines', wearing wear brightly colored costumes used only on this day, often with floral headdresses. Villages usually have several such teams, which are formed well in advance, bonded with oaths of allegiance among the members, who which learn the songs and dances together that will be performed on St. Lazarus' day.
- In the village of Flambouro in the Serres prefecture (northeast of Thessaloniki) each girl brings a handful of flour and an egg with her to the house where her team will be formed, and the pita baked from the collective offerings is shared by its newly united members.
On St. Lazarus' Day the girls go to the church with the other villagers for the liturgy, and afterwards make the rounds of the houses. There they sing and dance, and are treated to sweets and/or some gifts of money, and end up at the kafeneio where they also sing and dance, outside of this customary Greek male enclave, but if a man signals to a girl from inside, and she finds him appealing, she will enter and accept a drink from him, then return to the line and dance with the glass in her hand with the others, who all try to learn the identity of the young man. Songs sung on St. Lazarus Day are often about the coming of spring rather than the resurrectionof the saint,and point clearly to the pre-Christian origins of the holiday. In some places, however, people fashion images of the saint of cloth, dough, among other substances.
