The Botides of Corfu

The Botides of Corfu is an annual Holy Saturday custom held in Corfu Town, Greece, in which residents throw large clay pots — the botides — from their balconies and windows onto the streets around the Liston and the Spianada. The custom is observed at eleven o’clock on the morning of Holy Saturday, when the bells of Corfu Town announce the First Resurrection. The balconies are dressed in red cloth and the pots tied with red ribbon. The 2025 edition was held on 19 April.

The custom derives from a Venetian habit of discarding old household goods at the turn of the year, adopted under four centuries of Venetian rule and integrated into the Orthodox Holy Saturday observance. The crash of the pots is traditionally read as the earthquake that opened Christ’s tomb.

On Good Friday evening, the town’s three philharmonic societies — the Old Philharmonic, the Mantzaros, and the Kapodistrias — accompany the Epitaphios processions with Albinoni’s Adagio, Verdi’s funeral march, and Chopin, a tradition observed on the island since the nineteenth century. Corfu’s old town, with its Venetian fortresses and the arcaded Liston, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.