Corfiot Easter 2012 - a video compilation

   Ι made this compilation of videos that I found on the net to show to the world how special is our Easter festivities and traditions.

   The first video shows the traditional easter carrols performed by the Mantzaros Philharmonic Society on Easter Monday:



   The epitaph (funeral procession) of Saint George's church in the Old Fortress:



   The Philharmonic Society of Corfu performing the famous Albinoni's Adagio at the epitaph of the Cathedral (Mitrópoli):



   At the epitaph of Saint Spyridon which takes place on Easter Saturday morning, the Kapodistrias Philarmonic Union performs the funeral march from Beethoven's Third Symphony (Heroica) while the Philharmonic Society of Corfu performs Franco Faccio's "Hamlet":





   The so called "First Resurrection" takes place at 11 a.m. with the throwing of clay pots ("mpotides") from the windows: 



   Also at the very same moment, another custom takes place: that of "Mastela". A guy dives into a barrel of water which is full of coins thrown by passerbys and he collects them:



   At 12 p.m., the Philharmonic Society of Corfu gave a marching show attended by hundreds of spectators:



  At midnight, after the Resurrection an amazing fireworks show brightens the skies. Afterwards, the bands parade in the streets of old town playing the "Graikoi" march and giving shows by their percussion teams:







   The procession of Resurrection of "Panaya ton Ksenon" church on Easter Sunday morning: 




  The Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" performing Kritikos "Marcia Trionfale" at the procession of Resurrection of Saint Spyridon:


 


   - Read more about what is happening during the Holy Week in Corfu here: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-in-corfu.html

Watch Good Friday's funeral processions live wherever you are

   Tomorrow, Good Friday, from early in the evening until late at night, you can watch the live stream of the funeral processions that pass outside the Philharmonic Society of Corfu building. Click on the following link to connect:

http://www.livestream.com/OfficialFEK

   Also here is the link of tonight's general audition of the funeral marches that the Philharmonic Society of Corfu will perform tomorrow and on Holy Saturday.
The pieces performed are the following:

• Dimitrios Kafiris "O Pónos tis Manas"
• Tomasso Albinoni "Adagio"
• Franco Faccio "Hamlet" 

OfficialFEK on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

HAPPY GREEK ORTHODOX EASTER TO ALL OF YOU!

This year's Philharmonic Society of Corfu marching show

   This year too, celebrating our indepedence day, the Philarmonic Society of Corfu presented a fabulous marching show at the cricket ground of Esplanade.
   The show started with the theme from "Rocky" and the "Commandery" march. Then, they played a greek march called "Taxiarchia" and the famous "Memories" melody from "Cats", originally sung by Barbara Streisand. The show ended with a selection of famous melodies, "Con te partiro", the "Colonel Boogie" march and "Rocky theme" once again.
   Here is the video covering the whole show, courtesy of Corfweb.



-Last year's show: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2011/03/philharmonic-society-of-corfu-marching.html

This year's "Sunday of Orthodoxy" litany

   Last Sunday, the greek orthodox church celebrated the "Sunday of Orthodoxy" (known as well as "feast of Orthodoxy"). In Corfu we celebrate it with the litany of St. Theodora's relics around the old town accompanied by the philharmonic bands, numerous schools and the scouts.
   That day the weather was great. It was sunny and warm so lots of people decided to come to old town centre to watch the litany. Below, there are two videos covering the whole procession, courtesy of corfweb1 channel in YouTube.

Merry Christmas from John!

  I wish to all my readers Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012 filled with peace and prosperity. I hope to see you all in our beautiful island next year!

Here are three videos from a christmas concert given by the Corfu conservatory's children choir and the brass ensemble in the catholic cathedral of San Giacomo. In the first one, the choir is singing the famous spanish carol "Feliz Navidad" while in the last two the brass ensemble is perfomorming "Christmas swing" and a selection of corfiot and other greek carols.

Bands playing marches after litany

  Here are two short videos taken from the festivies of "Protokyriako" (every first Sunday of November we celebrate one of S. Spyridon's miracles). Right after the litany's end, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu and the Philharmonic Society "Mantzaros" marched in the Liston square playing marches.

A classic Routemaster London bus in Corfu Town

  The Routemaster doubledecker bus is one of the symbols of London. This type of bus was first introduced in 1956 and had been produced until 1968 but in 2005 the last ones had been drawn off and replaced by bendy buses. 

  A local english language school brought an original bendy bus in town for a week to advertise its english classes. The beautiful red bus was placed next to the old venetian fountain at the Esplanade. 

  From the very first day, our british visitor drew the attention of the passerbys who enjoyed their evening stroll.

  

  Do you think that Corfu's narrow streets and architecture could accomondate buses of this type?

The Philharmonic Society of Corfu at the 11th of August celebrations

Here are two videos from the 11th of August celebrations in Corfu Town with the Philharmonic Society of Corfu performing the famous march from Tannhäuser and Alford's "Colonel Bogey" march..

Some videos from Corfu's Easter 2011 festivities

  Corfu Easter is famous all around Greece. It's colorfull and unique, there are bands playing everywhere and lots of things going on around town. I searched the net and I found for you a bunch of videos from this year's festivities. I invite you to experience our Easter yourself and become a part of them.


Good Friday - Pantokratoras epitaph procession





Good Friday - Mitropoleos epitaph procession: Philharmonic Society of Corfu playing Albinoni's "Adagio"








Good Saturday morning - Procession of St. Spyridon: Philharmonic Society of Corfu playing Fr. Faccio's "Hamlet"





Good Saturday morning - The first Ressurection and the throwing of the clay pots.








Drum players from the Philharmonic Society of Corfu performing  I. Thimis' "Xoano", moments after the first Ressurection




Easter Sunday - moments before midnight: the Ressurection mass and the firework show at Esplanade





More about Easter in Corfu on this blog:
- Easter in Corfu, what to see and do: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-in-corfu.html
- Easter 2010 - a photographic coverage: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/corfu-easter-2010-photos.html
- Easter 2008 - more photos: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2008/04/corfu-easter-2008-brief-photo-essay.html

Palm Sunday's procession around old Corfu Town

Every Palm Sunday there is a big procession going on around the perimetre of old Corfu Town. We celebrate Jesus' triumpant entry in Jerusalem, as well as St. Spyridon's miracle which saved corfiots from the deadly plague of 1629. This is the island's biggest procession in length and in numbers. The litany starts from the Kofineta square and roughly follows the old walls which protected the town from the enemy.
Here there are three short videos from yesterday's procession.







A video from CorfuPress.com covering all of the procession:

Λιτανεία Κυριακής των Βαΐων (17-4-2011), Κέρκυρα by jvnadr

Philharmonic Society of Corfu marching show

  Yesterday we celebrated, like every 25th March, the start of the 1821 Greek War of Independence (or Greek Revolution) against the Ottoman rule. There was a parade in Esplanade, in which the four biggest bands, local schools and the navy took part. When the parade ended, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu did a little marching show on the grassy grounds of the cricket field, at the front of Liston. It was the first time a show like this has been given since 2004 and the locals seemed to appreciate this iniciative remind them the good old days when every 21st of May there was a big show given by the majority of the local wind bands at the very same place.

 Below there is a video in which you can see a big part of yesterday's show.



Edit: This is the best video to date - it covers the whole show and was taken from ground level and from a balcony of a Liston building. (Courtesy of mr. Stamatis Katapodis - mr. Spiros Margaritis)

Yesterday's special full moon as seen from Corfu Town

  Yesterday's full moon was a notable one. According to scientists, it was the closest and biggest one since 1992 as the distance between Earth and Moon usually is around 400,000 kilometres, while yesterday Moon was a 50,000 kms closer to us (356, 575 kilometres). Some supersticious people call it "Super Moon", an astronomical event which can cause earthquakes and other natural disasters (nothing of those things happened up to now).

  When I went out for a drink yesterday night, I took the chance and took some photos of this rare full moon. Hopefully the night sky was clear (it was cloudy during most of the day). To me, there wasn't a notable difference in its size nor in its brightness. It was just a common springtime full moon. The photos below are somewhat of low quality, taken with my compact Olympus camera.

  Did you achieve to see yesterdays "Super Moon" and took some photos? If yes, please submit your links as a comment.

The Feast of Orthodoxy litany

  As every year, yesterday the island celebrated the feast of Orthodoxy (a commemoration of the final defeat of Iconoclasm and the restoration of icons to the churches)  with the procession of Saint Theodora holy relics. The litany started from the cathedral in Spilia, followed the road in Mouragia, entered the Liston area from the Palace and headed back to the Cathedral via Nikiforou Theotoki street.
  Five corfiot wind bands, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu, Mantzaros, Kapodistrias, Korakiana and Gastouri philharmonic bands took part at the procession playing their religious marches, sounds which made corfiot music famous in Greece and beyond.





- Some videos from last year's procession: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2010/02/wind-bands-playing-at-santa-theodora.html

A breathtaking video taken from the top of the Old Fortress

Here is a breathtaking video taken from the top of the Old Fortress at the night of Resurrection (04/04) showing a panoramic view of the firework show and the thousands of candles at the Esplanade. It's a really unique, because I've never seen a video from that point of view before (most panoramic Resurrection videos are usually taken from the rooftops of the buildings near the Esplanade).

Corfu Easter 2010 photos

Here are few photos I took from the Easter festivities around Corfu Town - they just give you a taste of how wonderful and unique is Corfu during that time of the year.

And finally a video, taken by me last Saturday right after the first resurrection - Filarmonic Society of Corfu percussion is playing a short rhythmic march.

Corfu Easter videos

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. There will be a big procession  in Corfu Town which will mark the opening of the Easter festivities.
Like every year, we are expecting lots of visitors from other parts of Greece.
Here are some videos I found in YouTube where you can see how unique is Easter in Corfu.
I think you still have the time to book your Easter holidays and see yourself how special is this time of the year in our island.

The Philarmonic Society of Corfu playing Albinoni's "Adagio" in the Epitaph of Metropolis.





The Mantzaros Filarmonic Society playing "Caldae Lacrime" at the Epitaph of S. Spyridon in Easter Saturday morning.





The old Philarmonic of Corfu playing Faccio's "Amlet":





Coverage of the Epitaph of Saint Spyridon by local Corfu channel








After the Epitaph of Saint Spyridon, the first Resurrection takes place and the bands play cheerful marches.





At exactly 11 a.m. the first Resurrection takes place and is signified with the "botides"(clay pots) being thrown from the windows and balconies when the first "botos" (bell ring) is heard.





The fireworks after the Resurrection Mass are spectacular





In Easter Sunday there are many processions around Corfu Town

"Metal Ritual I" @ Ampelonas Triklino, 06/03/2010

Yesterday there was a notable heavy metal mini-festival at Ampelonas Triklino. Five greek bands played live (two of them, Stalkers and Psycorepaths are corfiot bands) and the headliners of the event was the athenian black metal group Aherusia with its distinctive fusion of cretan lyra sounds and metal.

Gigs like this are very important for our island, because it is an alternative option for a night out and give the chance to enjoy some live music which is rare in Corfu.

I shot three videos but unluckily the sound is very bad because there were shot with a mobile phone.

Whitenoiz on stage:

Psycorepaths:

Aherusia, the headliners of the festival:

Jerome Isma-Ae @ Au Bar, Corfu - 01.01.10

It was a great event - awesome music, Jerome played a set of his skillfull remixes and productions, he definately justified his fame!

Check out the videos!

John Graham @ Au Bar, Corfu 27/11/2009

Hailing from California, John Graham (also known as "Quivver") is a legend among those who really love what is called Progressive house music.


Maybe that was why the club was far from being full yesterday, the event attracted mostly progressive house music lovers. That's a pity because I think Graham deserved a bigger audience. Moreover, a more extensive promotion of the event should have been done.

If you were among those who didn't know about the event, don't worry! The good news is that a mega star dj, Jerome Isma-ae is going to rock the decks of Au Bar with the dawn of new year!!

DJ Baphomet (a.k.a Noiseevoluter) @ Edem beach Nightclub, 22/08/09

Playing Plastikman's "Spastik"