To the Editor:

The Easter greeting ‘Christos Anesti’ is heard with joy throughout the Christian world. The bells are ringing, always chiming the joyful message of the Resurrection of the Lord. The Resurrection of the Lord is the symbol of eternity and the foundation of the Christian faith, as the Apostle Paul declared. Easter is a day of true joy and love. Everyone is happy. The sun is shining brightly on Earth. The scent of thyme is everywhere under the sun on ‘Lambri’. Angels and people praise and glorify the resurrected Lord and sing Him epic songs. And He deserves it, after all, because His whole earthly life was bitterness and sorrow for the salvation of man. He ascended to Golgotha ​​and ended His life full of struggles. But now we forget the passions of Christ, to celebrate the resurrection light in the blossoming April.

This day the passions are forgotten. In this natural and divine festival, hatred, evil, division, and human vices must have no place. In the face of the light of the resurrection the darkness disappears. And when on the divine night of the Resurrection, the Christian with the white candle raises his hand to receive “light from the infinite light” he feels peace of mind and inexpressible joy.

For the Greeks, the Resurrection of the Lord is of special importance. The Greeks during the 400 years of their slavery had been crucified, like Christ. They were embroidered with the spear of the Turks, and they also had their Golgotha. But during the years of slavery the Easter light played a beneficial role for the survival of the Greeks, for the salvation of the desolate Romiosyni. This filled the aching souls with joy and warmed the hope that one sweet spring day, along with the Christos Anesti greeting, the joyful message “the homeland is risen” would resonate. And the God of love who suffered for the enslaved Greeks, performed his miracle one flowering dawn in spring. The crucified people are armed, fight, win, are resurrected.

Those who lived as slaves feel even more strongly the great importance of the hopeful light of the Resurrection of the Lord. This light still warms Greek souls, living in “bitter slavery, tangible darkness.”

Throughout Northern Epirus, with its great Greek-Christian culture and traditions, the resurrection’s light will not shine again this year. Christ is Risen – and may Northern Epirus rise again.

Kostas Stoupis

Boston, MA