Crowds of people gathered in Liston Square in Corfu this Good Saturday morning to watch the famous Easter custom of breaking the Boots immediately after the First Resurrection.
Residents threw from the decorated balconies of the old town (mainly around Spianada and Liston) large clay jugs (botides) full of water, making a deafening noise to “break” the evil.
The custom of breaking canoes at Easter in Corfu has a long history that goes back to the Venetian era, but there are various theories as to how it began. Some say that the custom is of the Venetian Catholics, who at the beginning of the year the inhabitants would throw away their old things so that the new year could bring them new and better things. The people of Corfu appropriated the custom, but replaced the old things with jugs to make more noise.
The second theory refers to the period of the ancient Greeks, who in April celebrated the beginning of the agricultural and vegetative season by throwing away their old jugs to fill the new ones with the new fruits. Some people will surely tell you in Corfu that whatever the truth, Corfiots like to exorcise evil with their jugs, signifying both the end of the winter lethargy and the rebirth of Nature.
