By Myriam Kiassou

Explosive in the literal sense of the word is Easter in Marathokampos Samos with the custom of the Ovids taking place with complete success this year as well.

For another year, crowds of people from every corner of the island gathered, just before the meal, at various points with an amphitheater view of the village but also in the area of ​​Gyalos in order to watch the impressive “trademark” custom of southwestern Samos.

Gunpowder, smoke, deafening explosions, colors in the sky and shells being fired as part of a unique competition between parishes who compete each year to provide the most spectacular spectacle to crown this year’s Easter winner.

After all, the joyful message of the Resurrection could only be identified with an almost transcendental setting of colorful colors and clapping.

The sights and sounds are awe-inspiring

The writer Nitsa Kiassou explains what the shell custom is in Marathokampos Samos

These are not simple rifles, like the ones that fall elsewhere nationwide, since the time of the Turkish occupation, every Easter. In Marathokampos, Samos, on the day of Lambri, shells explode!

In fact, thousands of shell casings fall, which are buried with gunpowder and paper, set up on the ground on the surrounding slopes of the village, and on Easter Sunday morning the locals detonate them, creating repeated spectacular explosions.

Preparations for the observance of the custom begin very early, practically lasting a whole year. Money must be raised for gunpowder, new projectiles must be manufactured, crews must be organized and coordinated. Many of the shells come from the 1940 war and have been kept like the apple of an eye all these years.

On a sunny Easter day, around the perimeter of Marathokampos, in the mountains, among the bushes, each of the five parishes of the village has its own numerous workshop and defined method of detonation.

Great importance is also given to the spectacle, since the specific placement of the projectiles contributes to the smoke being ejected with a certain shape. Shells, for example, that are fired upright (holortinia), send impressive white halos into the air, while those that have been dipped with gunpowder and ochre, fill the atmosphere with color.

Each drum throws five batteries (thunderbolts) in stages, one for each parish whose resurrected banner passes through a certain point, during the Elevation that takes place at 11 in the morning.

This custom does not stop on the day of Lambri. The shells that for whatever reason did not explode are collected and their firing is planned from the beginning. Sporadic batteries from such projectiles fall on the day of the feast of St. George, because obviously the Resurrection of Christ is recent, but also because several chapels in the area are celebrating, which gather a large number of pilgrims.

After all this follows the gathering and keeping of the mortars in the warehouses, the account and the comparison of the explosive presence of each parish, since in this habit it seems that the first place is of great importance, which reinforces the legend of manhood, ability and of youth.