Blissful and bittersweet holiday ‘reunions’

A household gets together for a classical Easter feast successful a village successful Corinth, connected Sunday, April 12, 2026. [Vassilis Psomas/AMNA]

What should beryllium a joyous juncture of families and friends getting backmost together each year successful their ancestral villages has, successful galore cases, turned into a bittersweet reunion with kin that near the country. 

Take Kostas, for example. He returned to the village from Germany with his wife and their two children to spend the Easter holidays with parents, relatives and friends. “I person bid of mind,” helium says of surviving successful Germany. “I tin rise my children without stress. My beingness is orderly. When I lived here, I felt stressed retired 24/7 – adjacent when I slept.” He studied machine engineering and had a occupation successful Greece. Then the economical situation struck, conscionable arsenic helium and his wife decided to start a family. It was an uphill conflict that ended with them leaving for abroad.

Vangelis didn’t marque it backmost for Easter. He had to beryllium successful Seoul to motion the declaration for a task connected aboriginal wildfire detection hazard developed by the institution helium founded with two classmates from the National Technical University of Athens. They, too, are based successful Germany.

Two cars I hadn’t seen earlier pulled successful and parked successful beforehand of the location adjacent doorway – rentals from the airport. Our neighbour came retired to welcome her two sons. Both are doctors. One settled successful Sweden respective years ago. The different ended up successful the United Kingdom aft becoming disenchanted with the world successful Greece. “It’s not casual implicit there either, but it is so overmuch easier to marque a plan. You cognize precisely where you’re starting disconnected from and however acold you tin go; you cognize however overmuch work you’ll person to bash and what you’ll gain from it. Everything is so overmuch much stable,” helium says, comparing his occupation successful England with working successful Greece’s nationalist wellness system.

The main village square is packed with people. A radical of young men and women sitting astatine the adjacent table implicit welcome a friend, a erstwhile classmate, who came backmost for Easter. They perceive arsenic helium tells them astir his beingness abroad, somewhere. It doesn’t truly substance where. He’s enjoying a relaxed java arsenic helium describes his usual hurried luncheon break, the lone interruption helium gets successful his working day.

For a fewer days each year, the state opens its arms to its departed children, enjoying the hubbub of an full generation’s little instrumentality – earlier sinking backmost into the doldrums of waiting for the adjacent homecoming, feeling deserted and aged.