PÂQUES BYZANTINE

Piana degli Albanesi is a small village lost in the mountains, 22 kilometres south of Palermo, near Corleone. A colony of Albanians driven out of the Balkans settled here in the 15th century with their Greek Orthodox Christian rites and their language,Arbeirisht . The Byzantine Easter is celebrated in the Chiesa di San Giorgio Megalomartire, in front of 70 women dressed according to the 15th century traditions. They are dressed in black clothes and a green headdress embroidered with gold threads. They distribute in the city blessed eggs painted in red symbolizing the rebirth.