Palm Sunday in Corfu

Summer has arrived with a vengeance and the marching bands and school kids were really suffering under the hot sun as they paraded through Corfu on Sunday morning dressed in their long-sleeved uniforms. The Palm Sunday procession, marking the beginning of the Orthodox Easter celebrations, commemorates the miraculous deliverance of the island from the Plague in 1629, when St. Spiridon is believed to have saved the people of Corfu. All 18 philharmonic orchestras parade through the streets of the old town, with the mummified body of the Saint accompanied by the Bishop and many priests, bringing up the triumphant rear. And so begins Holy Week, a true Greek mixture of feasting and fasting, music and ceremony, religious and secular, all taking place under a bright blue sky, with the scent of wisteria, jasmine and orange blossom filling the air.