INNER-city residents new to Darwin got the fright of their lives on Saturday night as Greek Orthodox Easter celebrations were rocked by loud explosions from home- made “dynamites”.
The explosions are an annual feature of Greek Orthodox Easter celebrations, which this year fell on the same weekend as the Christian Easter.
About six of the home-made “dynamites” were set off about midnight, scaring many residents of the city near the church, which is on the corner of Cavenagh and Daly streets.
One resident said there were at least six explosions, about a minute apart, while the congregation was chanting.
“My housemate actually hit the deck,” he said.
He watched as another man got out of a taxi in between blasts, but when an explosion went off the man fled in terror. “He absolutely legged it,” the resident said.
“Everyone in the city limits would have heard it. People in the congregation didn’t seem too worried.”
Kalymnos Brotherhood Association spokesman Tony Miaoudis said congregation members did not like the explosions but the church could not stop them.
“They are the same people who do it every year (but) we don’t know who they are,” he said.
“We sort of warn people to just be close to the church, because we don’t know what area they are going to use.”
He said on the Greek island of Kalymnos, where many Darwin families came from, neighbourhood rivals would try and outdo each other with the loudest Easter explosions.
“I don’t think they’re rogues – they’re just using the tradition they use in Kalymnos,” he said.
“It happens in all the churches in Greece.”
In 2004, the church’s windows were smashed and airconditioners damaged as 42 explosions were set off.
The next year the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia banned the bombs after a woman was blinded in Melbourne.
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