We use affiliate links. If you purchase something using one of these links, we may receive compensation or commission.
Eggs and Easter customs from Rhodes
The Easter custom of “Avgoula” with red eggs that is still made today in Rhodes
On our trip to Rhodes with the HELLENIC CUISINE magazine, the period of Vaiana week coincided with the Rhodesian Easter custom of “Avgoula”. Red Easter eggs inside sweet fluffy butter pastry with different patterns.
Apollo of Rhodes
In the green mountainous village of Apollona, ​​Rhodes, we found ourselves at the Apolloniatisses, the women’s cooperative made up of local mothers and daughters and preserving all the customs of the place every season, with materials from their region, just as it was done in the past.
As soon as we arrived, they were finishing the Easter bread rolls, and they were unfurling their rose-red decorated Eggs in different designs.
All the traditional Easter recipes of Rhodes were decorated all around, from the anevata, the buttery ones to the traditional Avgoules.
Archangel of Rhodes
In Archangelos of Rhodes, in the traditional wooden oven of Katerina Yasirani, we found mom Katerina and her daughter Maria embroidering and decorating elaborate Easter Archangel Eggs in many different designs.
They embroidered the dough with mastery and skill in different designs and at the end they placed a red egg on top. They are left on large sheets to rise and baked in the wood-fired oven until golden brown. The individual eggs are intended for children to feel the joy of the days.
Afantou
In the village of Afantou in Rhodes, even today, at Easter, they embroider the large and impressive Egg of the groom. It is given by the wife to the husband to the newly married couple.
It is round in shape and each piece includes 21 red eggs and elaborate pastry designs.
Customs that were passed down to the next generations and are still preserved today. The local cultural associations of each region contribute to the dissemination and preservation of the characteristics of these customs that were established and preserved, preserving the cultural heritage of each region.
In mountainous Embona
In mountainous Embona, in the vineyard of Rhodes, in addition to the famous wines, we tried the Easter fluffy “ammoniakena” cookies and freshly baked “Lazarus” with plenty of raisins and mastic.
How to make the traditional Roditiki Avgoula
- They put the flour in a large bowl. Burn the fresh butter in a saucepan until it foams and burns well and pour it over the flour.
- With a wooden spoon they mix until all the flour is wet and the mixture cools down so they can knead.
- A little sugar, crushed mastic, lye from ash water to make the pretzels fluffy, orange and lemon juice, a little water, and the dough is ready.
- Good kneading in the tight buttery dough, lots of rest and then comes the embroidery of the Egg, in various elaborate designs.
- Finally, the red Easter egg decorates each egg.
- They go into the oven until they are golden brown and musky.
- The classic shape consists of a thin string of dough, shaped into a figure 8 shape.
- In one circle the egg is placed and around it with small pieces of dough they fix the egg with different emptiness patterns.
Snake-shaped eggs
And in Rhodes and in other Dodecanese islands, the Eggs intended for the houses are shaped like a snake. The dough body is sheared with scissors and forms scales.
The red egg goes into the snake’s mouth. I have encountered the same custom in Patmos.
Necessarily every home keeps it intact and decorated in a visible place for the good of the family. The custom wants the Easter patroness Avgoula to protect the whole family from evil throughout the year until the next Easter.
Beautiful customs, unique traditions that are preserved and make Greek cuisine special and unrepeatable
Happy Easter