Commercial pressures have succeeded in inflating Christmas into an event of some importance in Greece, with both shops and private dwellings displaying strings of lights, erecting Christmas trees and playing secular Christmas songs. The phenomenon is recent, having grown mainly over the past 15 years or so, and it is Easter that remains the primary event of the Orthodox calendar. It is the time when families return to their villages of origin, go to Church and eat large quantities of roast lamb on Easter Monday – although fewer and fewer families can afford to buy a whole lamb to roast on the spit as was formerly the tradition.
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Of eggs and Greek mothers
The Maleme team at the Kolymbari Carnival was sporting a slogan which said “Mana thavgo”, which taken phonetically means “Mother, I’m going out”. While intended as a play on words – as “avgo” means egg in Greek, the float featured a large papier-mâché hen with attendants in hen costumes carrying eggs – the phrase is a also a meme symbolising the concern of the archetypal Greek mother for her offspring when they announce that they are going out, e.g. for the evening. (She is also typified by another meme which says: “Mana exei mono mia” – there is only one mother.)
Continue readingAt the Kolymbari Carnival
It is Carnival time in the Nomos of Chania, with the Chania Carnival at Souda and the Kolymbari Carnival both taking place on Sunday 23rd February, and the Kissamos Carnival coming a week later on Sunday 2nd March. The first carnival ever to take place in the Municipality of Platanias, the Kolymbari event kicked off at 4.00 pm on Sunday afternoon in the centre of town.
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