Botides, the Pot Smashing of Corfu

The streets of the old town are narrow, and when the bells ring for the First Resurrection they fill with the sound of breaking clay. Residents lean from windows and balconies, hung with red cloth, and drop large clay pots onto the pavement, around 11:00 on Holy Saturday. People gather below to collect the fragments, which are believed to bring good luck.

Nobody knows exactly where it comes from. One theory points to the Venetians, who smashed old pots on New Year's Day, and says the Orthodox islanders moved the custom to Easter. Another sees the noise as the earthquake that the Gospels link to the Resurrection. Others relate it to ancient spring rites, or to the old belief that loud noise drives off evil spirits. The oldest known reference dates to at least the 19th century.

Holy Saturday is a full morning. At 9:00 the procession of Saint Spyridon starts out, the epitaph is carried with it. At 11:00 the pots fly, and the bands play joyful marches through the old town. In 2026 thousands of residents and visitors gathered on the Spianada, cannon fired from the Old Fort, and the revived custom of the mastela is kept in the Pinia area: passers-by throw coins into a decorated barrel of water, and a volunteer jumps in to fetch them. At midnight the Holy Light and the Resurrection service end the day.

How to go: be in Corfu Town on Holy Saturday morning, and find a place around the Liston or the Spianada early. The day before is Holy Friday, when the city's 33 epitaphs are carried through the streets with philharmonic bands. The date follows Orthodox Easter, so it differs from Western Easter in many years. Our Corfu guide covers the town and where to stay.