Stin ygeia mas

There are hard times coming in Greece because of the general economic crisis. But Greeks are not people who immediately give up to sit and simmer. And especially not before the 40 days of Lent and Easter: it is time for carnival when, for a while, all problems are swept aside.

The carnival (apokries) in Greece lasts about three weeks. The first week is for getting into the mood, in the second week mostly meat is eaten. The top day of that week is tsiknopempti or Smoked Thursday when Greeks light up their grills and eat lots and lots of meat. The third week is the cheese week, so lots of dairy products are eaten. This week concludes with the big weekend of carnival and the festivities come to a close with Clean Monday (kathari devteri) on February 15.

People who do not have too much money, or who do not fancy going out to party, can stay home and turn on the television. Last tsiknopempti the popular Greek music program ‘Stin ygeia mas’ broadcast a special program as a contribution to the festivities: singing, dancing and making fun, that is always the message of this amazing live program.

Since 2005, on one of the biggest Greek tv-channels NET, the program has been running for three hours every Saturday night. Imagine a long row of tables (each year with ever more fancy table cloths). Behind the tables are the guests: a wide variety of singers, musicians and the host, Spiros Papadoupolo, an actor you will see in a lot of tv-serials. After the introductions, the first singer gets on stage (where there is an orchestra), takes the microphone and the show begins.

If you want to learn the vast collection of Greek popular songs, you have to watch this program each week. Most of the songs are very well known so guests and host can sing along. After a year viewing ‘Stin ygeia mas’ I am sure you will know most of the songs.

Not only do they sing on stage, but also from the tables, and when the evening really warms up, flowers are thrown at the singers. In Greece they used to throw plates and dishes (on the floor) to encourage a beautiful performance by an artist, or because they sang a favourite song. But smashing crockery is maybe not without danger. Years ago plate throwing was forbidden so nowadays people throw flowers. But we know the Greeks, so even on a national television program such as ‘Stin ygeia mas’ the occasional stack of dishes will be shattered into a thousands pieces on the dance floor.

The same faces reappear in the program but some very big artists can also be seen as guests on the program — like Georgos Dalares, Yannis Parios or Kostas Xatsis. Or sometimes they have really special guests like the singing priest or a group of folk dancers with very young members. The situation sometimes can get quite turbulent, which can be very amusing. Have a look at the table dance’ and or the comic ‘broom dance’!

In Holland you will never see a program on television where guests sing so loud without any embarrassment, get drunk and dance the night away. But this is how a Greek evening is. Be it at a wedding, a special dinner or a television program, when there is live music, there is always singing and dancing, on the dance floor, besides the dinner tables or amongst the dishes on the table.

‘Stin ygeia mas’ is not always as entertaining. There are nights when there only old people are featured, who do not smile often so then you have to hope it’s the music that’s enchanting. But when Dimitris Starovas or Yannis Zouganelli are at the tables you can be sure that the evening will bring a lot of fun and sparkling music.

There are also moments when everybody behind the long tables falls quiet, because of a beautiful performance like the one of Iro Lechouriti. And sometimes it’s not all Greek songs but Spanish songs accompanied by Spanish dances; or pop songs or songs with a pretty foreign sound, from a group like Cabaret Balkan.

It is clear that there is music in the Greek blood. The Rebetiko is a popular Greek music style that was formed at the beginning of the 20ste century, a distillation of the Turkish music that the Greek refugees from Smyrna brought with them when they were expelled from Turkey, plus the music style already existing in Piraeus. In the twenties Rebetiko was the ‘blues of Greece’, played in hashish den and all over the poor quarters of the big cities. (TB: Rebetiko was also frowned upon by the Colonels). Many Rebetiko songs are played in ‘Stin ygeia mas’, although young people probably think they are old fashioned. I am sure that with the current crisis Rebetiko will have another revival, like in the Sixties.

Singing aloud with a longing in the heart for the good old years, that is what Greek entertainment is all about. It is something that we are going to need very badly in the coming days.

(Thanks to Tony Barrell)

@ Smitaki 2010

Hoppa!

I love Greek music. I do not know what it is in those old songs I specially like, because I still do not understand all the words. But Greek songs go straight to my heart. In Holland they would be called tear-jerkers but I assure you that the sound of a bouzoukia (Greek guitar-like instrument) goes deeper than the best Dutch tear-jerker song ever.

My evening is good whenever there is dancing besides the music. In Greece weddings, parties and dinners can all turn spontaneously into a big dancing party. It is more than often that the music is played so loud that there is nothing else to do than to listen to the music and to watch the dancers. I do not mind, but sometimes there are parties when it is pretty irritating that the sound is so loud that it is hard to chat with your neighbour and even impossible to talk to the person opposite you. The Greeks never seem to mind. They sing and clap enthusiastically with the music, they carefully spot all people in the party and they love to show how good they dance.

In my earlier years I was crazy with the bouzoukia. That is not only a musical instrument but it is also the name of a nightclub where Greek singers perform until early in the morning. Sometimes the people there go that wild that plates will fly over your head.

Not because there was a fight. In earlier times when you were happy because your friend danced well, or the singer was beautiful or she brought you to tears with her song, you could order a pile of plates and smash them into pieces on the dance floor. Nowadays they do it with flowers, which is less spectacular. And I miss the crackling sound of the broken pieces under the shoes.

Now I am a little older and I do not know anymore the art of getting the magic of those long and late nights at the bouzoukia. How the Greeks do it, I do not know, but for sure at one o'clock I mostly go in the direction of my bed and not to the bouzoukia. Also there is no bouzoukia place near Molyvos. The local music bar in the Harbour Street is kind of small, although a band with singers as well as a public do get in easily. They will not see their beds before four o'clock in the morning.

I did visit the music bar once and since then I intended to go there more, but until now I have not been back there. That does not matter because I have enough parties where there is music and dancing. Sometimes it even happens during dinner in a small restaurant that people start dancing in between the tables, like happened in Stipsi where we ate last week.

Some parties have a disc jockey who alternates English music and Greek music. Then plenty of people will enter the dance floor and the now so popular simultaneous dancing is nothing compared to this. The handkerchief is flying through the air and it will rain flowers on the dancers. Sometimes somebody does a breathtaking solo dance, like the groom at the last wedding we visited. He danced alone and happy around a glass of ouzo, as a last farewell to his life as a bachelor. There are times that it is the grandparents who will make the show. When they enter the dance floor it is as if they totally forgot their age and their stiff bones.

Greek dances come form the heart and not from the legs. That is why they often can be pretty touching. And sometimes they are hilarious. On the island of Samos I used to know a Yannis who with his mouth tilted a little table in the air and danced around with it. Last week we were on a Dimitri dinner party (It was Dimitris Day) and there was a man who first tried to put a glass on his head, then he stood up with a bottle on his head and finally he put a vase with flowers on his head, walked slowly to the dance floor and did a pretty amazing dance act.

I will not easily learn Greek dancing and I am sure that I will never dance with a vase of flowers on my head. For the people who do like to try this at home I have one tip: you need a bald patch on your head and before you place an object there be sure that you wet the surface of your head and the surface of the object with some spittle. I am sure you will be successful!

For the ones who like to try to dance with a table in their mouth I have no advice. I could barely believe my eyes when I saw it happen. I will not compensate for new dentures nor will I compensate for a new vase with or without flowers!

Copyright © Smitaki 2005