Few countries celebrate Easter quite like the Greeks on the island of Chios. In the village of Vrontado, they celebrate an age-old tradition of firing rockets between two hilltop rival congregations set 400 metres apart, the tradition is known as Rouketopolemos. It is said that when Turkey occupied the island, they banned Christians from celebrating Easter; to circumvent this the two congregations staged a fake war with cannons and fireworks allowing the mass to proceed.
Rockets are made by the locals all year long and on the Saturday before Easter Sunday the war begins with the objective of hitting the opposing churches’ bell tower. The next morning direct hits are counted and with nobody willing to concede defeat the war continues to the next year!!
