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 "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.

A documentary about our patron saint

   Here is an interesting documentary about Corfu's patron Saint Spyridon, originally produced and broadcasted on an ukranian channel but translated in greek by a local channel. By watching it you can tell how important is our saint in our lives and how much we love him.



-For a Saint Spyridon's bio, read this post: http://johncorfuworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-saint-spyridons-day.html

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.

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..

A video from the 11th of August litany

  The 11th of August litany is one of the greatest processions in the island. We celebrate one of Saint Spyridon miracles which took place in August 1716 when Corfu was sieged for many days by the Ottoman Turks. Legend has it that at the most critical point of the siege, when the Turks were about to gain access to the Old Fortress, a fierce storm broke out which made the enemy to give up. Since then, every 11th of August we celebrate with this  big procession which takes place around the Esplanade and Liston. Many wind bands participate and there are lots of tourists from mainland Greece and abroad attending.
  Here is a video I found at YouTube from this year's procession.

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

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