Greek Orthodox Easter
A Tradition Event
O Rouketopolemos
The Rocket War
As a variation of the Greek habit of throwing fireworks during the celebration of the service at midnight before Easter Sunday, two rival church congregations in the town perform an Rocket War by firing thousands of rockets across the town, with the objective of hitting the bell tower of the church of the other side.
It is difficult to know how and when this tradition started in Vrontados. Today there are many different versions of the story. I will tell you two of them.
The first version tells a story that this comes from the 19th century, when the Ottoman occupiers confiscated the canon over fear they would be used in a uprising. So locals resorted to fire rockets instead. This became the traditional annual Rocket War.
The second story states that this tradition was born during the Ottoman occupation. People from the island were prohibited to celebrate Easter the way they were used to. The people from the churches of San Maria and San Marco decided to have a fake war with rockets to keep the Ottomans away. Indeed, the Ottomans were frightened by the sudden violence. They kept a safe distance while the rockets were fired. In the meantime, the communities could celebrate Jesus’ resurrection in the churches.
These are some photos that have been taken during
the afternoon before the Rocket War in Vrontados
(You can click over each pic to enlarge them)
Preparing the launching ramps
Testing the aim of the launching ramps with real rockets 
Testing the launching ramps 
A young person bringing food to the different members of the teams 
Bringing the thousands of rockets by pick-up trucks 
Bringing rockets from the vehicles to the lauching areas 
At the end of the afternoon, everything is ready for the start of the war.
Looking forward to the night ahead
These are some photos that have been taken
during the Rocket War night in Vrontados.
(You can click over each pic to enlarge them) 
Just before the shot of one team and during it the "warriors" make noise to announce that they are shooting. 
Firing of the Rockets 
Launching of the rockets 
Panagia Erithiani church under fire! 
Agios Markos church under fire! 
The rockets when launched all together create a cloud of entoxicating smoke, so they wear bandanas to help breathe. 
The warriors reloading the launching ramps! 
Reloading the ramps! 
Then the other team fire their rockets! 
Firing the rockets! 
Overview of the rocket barrage 
A lot of display fireworks are launched too! 
During the war, some people are also following the religious ceremony of the resurrection of the Christ. 
It is raining fire...!
These are some photos that have been taken the morning
after the Rocket War in Vrontados
(You can click over each pic to enlarge them) 
The next day there are a lot of burnt out rockets on the ground next to the churches. 
The ground of one church! 
Protecting the churches windows is very important as you can see on this photograph. 
Many impacts on the walls (black spots) 
Panagia Erithiani church after the war. 
The locals cleaning the street of rockets. 
In some places it is possible to see the vegetation burned because of a fire started by a rocket. 
One launching area after the war!
The Videos:
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment