Every evening throughout Holy Week (Great Week), all the churches are decorated with purple bands. Priests dress in dark vestments and church bells keep tolling. Weddings, christenings, balls and celebrations are not to take place during this week. People gather in church to commemorate the Passion of Christ.
On Holy Tuesday, housewives make sweet rolls called ‘koulourakia’.
On Holy Wednesday they clean the house, then in the evening they go to church for the blessing of the Holy Oil.
Holy Thursday is the day for dyeing the eggs. In Byzantine times, it was the custom to bake ring-breads with a red egg in the middle. The egg is a symbol of life and red the colour of life (as in blood). The dyeing of eggs for religious purposes is a practice which is encountered in many parts of the world.
In the evening, after the reading of the gospel, women undertake the decoration of the bier of Christ (epitaphios) with garlands of white and purple flowers, so that in the morning of Good Friday it is ready to receive the image of the body of Christ when He is taken down from the cross.
On Good Friday noon, all Greek flags fly at half mast.
On Good Friday evening, the service of the Epitaph, which symbolizes the funeral of Christ, is held. Then everybody follows the procession of the Epitaph, carrying brown lighted candles. The procession begins and ends at the church, following a fixed itinerary through the town. Each procession meets the congregation from the next church along the route, until all the churches process together along the paralea, in a solemn procession past the other people of Skopelos.