The day before Easter, the Greeks prepare for the lavish barbeque that will be held the next day. Here is one of the traditional Greek Easter foods being prepared. Kokoretsi is the name of the dish that is made from the internal organs (liver, lungs, heart, etc) of the lamb. After the organs are skewered, the intestines are taken and wound around the organs  to hold them onto the spit.

Here I am rotating the kokorestsi to facilitate the winding of the intestines over the various lamb organs. The green bowl (in the lower-left corner) contains the intestines. At one point, Lila, Nick's dog, was able to grab a piece of intestine hanging out of one of the bowls. She grabbed it and ran - streaming seven or eight feet of intestines behind her. In our opinion, that is the best thing to do with the intestines - feed it to the dogs. Bill has to confess though that he did get talked into trying the kokoretsi. Synthia was adamant in her refusal though. Perhaps the chippero (Greek liquor) that Bill was drinking helped make it easier for him to taste this Greek delicacy.

Two of the lambs are cleaned and washed. Greeks are very informal about food - as you can tell by this photo where they are cleaning the lambs outside and not in a sanitized kitchen like the Americans would do.

The lamb is placed on a spit, secured, filled with spices, then sewn shut. In Greece, this is the only time that men sew anything.

Lamb number 2 is prepared.

The lambs are on the barbeques. There were four large barbeques that were filled with lamb. A total of six full lambs and three spits full of kokoretsi were barbequed over hot wood coals.

Everyone had their turn at hand-rotating the spits so the food would cook evenly.

Turn faster Synthia!! Don't let it burn.

Live music

When relieved from the barbecues, you were usually dancing in the street.

Nick and Maria show Synthia the steps necessary for the Greek dance. O-pa!

Another dance...

...that requires trust and strength.

The end result of 2 days of preparations and fun.