Easter, though a moveable feast, usually falls in the middle of the spring, a season where Sifnos is at its best.

This time of the year, the flowers in the gardens are in full bloom and the countryside is too, full of the colors and scents of wild flowers and blooming trees. The stone-paved trees are freshly painted, as are the houses. The faithful attend the church services, including the litany that takes place on the Holy Friday, the housewives are busy baking the traditional "birds", a variety of sweet egg-bread kneaded in the shape of animals or bread , dye and decorate Easter eggs, and make preparations for the special meal on Easter day, lamb cooked in mastelo, a ceramic pot placed on a grill made of vine sticks, to be companied by the local red wine, a large variety of local cheese, and honey cheese-pies.

Though some of the old Easter traditions (such as a game resembling bowling) are not as strong today as they were in the past, Easter on Sifnos can be a truly memorable experience.

Special local customs of Sifnos

1. The traditional wedding of Sifnos, with a prolonged ritual before and after the ceremony, where leading roles, apart from the bride and the groom are also held by the best man and the maid of honour. Characteristic are the two 'tacimia' (pairs) of musical instruments, played for two days and nights, the 'pasteli', a delicacy offered in rhomboid shapes, the bride's dance, led necessarily by all the guests and the hundreds of improvised wishes in the form of poems heard all day and all night.
2. The name days, which constitute a social and cultural event, during which half of the island travels to wish every best to the other half, and which most of the times turn into night-long feasts with traditional instruments, dancing and singing.
3. Carnival. Carnival also has its special colour; unless something sad happens in-between, the whole island feasts until Shrove Monday, consuming tons of wine. All during the Carnival, there are people dressed up wandering around, called in Sifnos' local dialect 'camels' with costumes full of inspiration and humour.
4. Saturday evening 'chickpea soup' and Paschal 'mastelo' are customs for the families in Sifnos. Every Saturday, the 'scepastaria' is prepared, a clay pot with chickpeas, which is given to the local bakery, to be left to bake until Sunday morning. Every Saturday before the Easter day, the traditional plate of the evening is 'mastelo', lamb in the oven in a clay pot. Both have a special taste due to particularly difficult recipes and to their particularly slow stewing in the oven.
5. The burning of Judas, the Easter 'Lolopanigiro' in February, Kyr-Vorias on the last Sunday of the Carnival and Lent game 'tsounia' are special customs of Sifnos, having ancient roots, which time and progress have not erased.

Local Customs