Alcionides Days

A Dutch proverb says you can 'live like a God in France'. But in Greece you live with the Gods. Each year this is proved by the Alcionides Meres or Halcyon Days, also called The Little Summer of January. The Gods must organize these warm days, how else would you explain this phenomenon?

The warm weather encourages the Greeks to empty their last olive trees and it's a wake up call for those in nature that are behind, like the almond trees this year, to prepare for spring. Aeoles, God of the wind, remains calm. The sea is like a mirror, where grumbling fishing boats have happy fishermen, because the fishes these days are eager to get caught. A fisherman from Chania, Crete, was lucky enough to catch a squid of one and a half metres! When you cut this huge squid (these big ones normally live in the deep sea) into rings, you can hulahoop with them!

The myth of the Alcionides Days shows that although the Gods could be cruel sometimes they also showed some mercy. Alcyone, daughter of Aeoles, married an earthly king, Ceyx. They were so in love that they sometimes called each other 'Zeus' and 'Hera'. This made Zeus mad. So when one day Ceyx was travelling over the sea, Zeus produced a big thunderstorm and Ceyx was struck by lightning and drowned. Alcyone was so grieved by the death of her husband that she threw herself into the sea and drowned as well. The Gods took mercy. They changed the pair into seabirds (ice birds) and Aeolus made sure that for two weeks in January the weather would be nice so that the birds could build a nest and lay their eggs on the rocks.

The inhabitants of the city of Arta (North West Greece) also showed their mercy, after priests published a letter in the local paper about the shameful circumstances of the life of local foreign workers. These workers live a life like in the middle ages and are exploited by the local farmers and businessmen. Greeks do listen to their papas, but the priests were still surprised when after publishing this letter of mercy, goods started flooding in, as well as free medical treatment.

Many immigrants in Greece come from neighbouring Albania. But just as many Greeks did in the Fifties in America and Australia, the Albanians now know how to make a good living. That good that they leave the countryside, where living conditions are the most difficult for them. And now the Greek farmers are panic stricken, because they have nobody to do their harvest. A Farmers Syndicate is now talking about getting some 50,000 workers from Egypt, in order to solve this problem.

Last Christmas an Albanian friend of ours travelled to Italy, to visit some relatives there. She was stunned by the price of goods in the shops. She told me that her relatives earn twice as much money as they do here in Greece. But then they have to work the whole day, from early morning to late at night, leaving them no time for other things.

She said here in Greece she has to work hard as well, but in Greece work finishes early, which leaves time to spend going for a walk, helping the kids with their homework or going out to dinner (one of the things that is still relatively cheap in Greece). According to her, life in Greece has much more quality than in Italy.

The Greeks may not agree with this, because thanks to the latest political scandals (see the previous Lesvos News), they no longer trust their politicians or the media.

Residents of an area in Athens discovered that the trees in a little park were being poisoned, (yes, they discovered an alternative for arson) so that a parking garage could be built. The residents went to a high court to get these plans overturned, because they no longer trust their local politicians.

But on a nice Sunday during the Alcionides days, all cares are forgotten. Then the Greeks go out with their whole family. They go to picturesque places like Molyvos, to take a little stroll and no political scandal can stop them from flocking to the restaurants by the sea.

Copyright © Smitaki 2008

Land grabbing

When it's really clear weather on Lesvos, from some heights in the north, like Vafios or Lepetimnos, you can see a kind of pyramid sticking out of the sea: Mount Athos.

As a woman you can only look at Mount Athos. It lies on a spit of land in the region of Macedonia (Northern Greece). Only men, most of them monks, live there in about twenty orthodox monasteries. It's also called the Autonomous Monastery State of the Holy Mountain, because it's a little independent state within Greece.

For nearly 1,000 years only male visitors are allowed to enter this magnificent mountain state, with its old and beautifully situated monasteries. Women who try to enter this land of monks risk a prison sentence of 1 or 2 years.

Sometimes there are campaigns to allow women to enter. Mount Athos is in Europe, where men and women have equal rights. And even though the monks consider Athos an autonomous state, they accept money from Europe to modernise their monasteries. See: 'Should women get access to Mount Athos' on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd4q5FPT7R0&feature=related

Last week a group of women forced access to the monastery state. With their action they wanted to not only make a statement that they were against the ban, but also they wanted to underline the fact that they'd had enough of the land grabbing of Mount Athos. Mount Athos is claiming land in Halkidiki, a land spit not far from Athos, where more and more people are losing land and houses. The monks of Mount Athos justify their claims from old books, dating from the period when the Ottomans occupied the land and from as long ago as Byzantine times.

Mount Athos has money enough to pay fancy lawyers and the poor inhabitants can't do anything, because they can't afford such lawyers in order to prove that the land is theirs and not the church's.

The only countries in Europe that don't have a land registry are Albania and Greece. In Greece they started doing this job (worthy of a monk) in the nineties, but the work is still unfinished.

When the big wild fires occurred last summer it was clear the problems this could cause. Many clever businessmen saw an opportunity to get land to build on, whenever the woods on it were burned down. There was no law in the country that could prove on which land they could not build.

Many see not having a proper land registry as one of the causes of the wild fires. But now this fact is also affecting the victims. Of the 162 million euros that were collected for the victims, only 2.7 have been spent, on emergency assistance for farmers and building the flood works in Olympia, the cultural site that already got too much attention when it was besieged by the flames.

But the people who want to rebuild their homes have to do it the Greek way: gathering all the permits, which can take ages, even though you are homeless. There are people who had a house built illegally. For them there is no help. But there are also people that cannot clearly prove that the house and the land were theirs. Because there is no land registry! More than 4,000 houses were destroyed, but only a little rebuilding has been started. Only the two villages of Artemida and Makisto have been rebuilt, thanks to financial help from Cyprus and a wealthy shipping family.

So you have to be careful when buying land in Greece. Until about than ten years ago foreigners were not allowed to own land close to the Greek borders. In 1960, Anthony Quinn, famous from the movie Zorba the Greek, bought a piece of land on Rhodes by the sea. In 1984 the deal was judged illegal and cancelled by the Court of Rhodes, based on the above law. Last year, when Quinn's widow went to Rhodes to claim her land, there still wasn't a solution.

In the north of Cyprus you have to take care as well. There you can buy beautiful villas for very little money. But chances are that you'll lose it quickly, when Greek Cypriots can prove that you bought their land which was occupied by the Turks.

But the best story is still that of a smart Greek who sold part of the Akropolis Hill to an American. When the American wanted to fence his land he realised that they'd cheated him: cultural sites belong to the State and no Greek can sell it!

The Greek government also provides good examples: in December the Minister of Work resigned, after it was found that not only did he have illegal people working for him in his country house, but his large country house was built with only a permit for a garden shed!

At the end of December the general secretary of the Ministry of Culture resigned and attemted suicide a few days later. When they searched his house a compromising sex video proved that he had been blackmailed. And then all the dirty news came out such as that Christos Zacharapoulos was bribed to allow building projects on archeological sites.

On Lesvos we don't have any such juicy stories. Here life goes on between the olive trees and the orange trees, the quiet sea used by the refugees and the local fishermen looking for fish. It's good that there's more to Greece than just Lesvos, otherwise the papers would be really dull...

Copyright © Smitaki 2008

Cross-throwing

It's a strange sensation, waking up in the morning, opening the paper on the internet and reading the headline: 'Greece struck by a large earthquake'. I slept well and looked around: everything normal. Here there was no earthquake. It wouldn't have been the first time that I woke up from my sleep because of an earthquake. That feels like somebody's rocking your bed. Then I mostly turn over and think: it can't be that bad...

But this quake seems to have been somewhat stronger, because many people fled their homes, especially in Athens where in 1999 more than a hundred people died during the last big earthquake (in Turkey thousands of people lost their lives). The quake this morning occured in the south of Greece, at Leonido in the Pelopponesus. It measured 6.5 on the Richter Scale and it was probably strong enough to cause some damage on islands like Karpathos, Kythira and Crete. A couple that fled from their home on Crete looked back and saw an enormous rock coming down the mountain, destroying their house (source: BBC news). That's not a nice way to wake up. You would almost think that it was the Kallikanzaris at work, those little monsters that harass people between Christmas and January 6.

Because today is such a day you can write about each year. In many countries the 6th of January is Three Kings Day, in Greece this day is called Epiphany, the day of Cross-throwing, the day that the priests go through the villages and cities, followed by everybody who is important in the municipalities. The priest holds a cross and a bunch of basil, which he uses to bless everything he encounters. The procession ends up at the waterside, where boats and water are blessed as well.

This is the most sensational part of the day, because the pappas throws the cross into the water and some stout young men will dive into the freezing water in order to get the cross back. The one who finds the cross will win some money.

Epiphany is also the day when the Kallikanzaris will disappear until the next Christmas. I already wrote about those little creatures (see Boulevard News 18 December 2006) that during the twelve days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, will tease the people by destroying their food or climbing on somebody's back. Epiphany, the day when Greeks will go in procession through their villages after which they will enjoy a large meal, is finally the end of all those celebration days.

The so-called Three Kings Cake is then already long gone. The Greeks eat this cake, the vasilopita, in which they hide a bean or a coin, on New Years Eve. And although those Three Wise Men have a place at the Greek crib, they have no day of honour. They do participate in some processions, as do the Kallikanzaris that are represented as hairy trolls, apes or angry looking dwarfs. In some Greek areas these processions look like a merry carnival.

In Molyvos it's only the priest followed by the notables dressed up in their Sunday best and spiky heels, that parade through the village. A little sun tries to give the day more feel of celebration. The strong cold has left the air, so the people don't have to suffer from the cold during their village procession and the cross-throwing.

Tomorrow there will be another celebration day. It will be the Name Day of Yannis, a name which is given to all too many Greeks. That will be another day of festive meals. Then we will have to wait for the Carnival, after which Lent begins. And then, yes, then summer will start again with Easter.

Copyright © Smitaki 2008

A sad outcome

The sky above Lesvos is grey. For about two weeks the sun did its best, but now the weather will change again into rainy and cold conditions. The wind takes it easy during the daytime, but blows during the night. Not a happy situation for the refugees who like to travel during the night across the sea.

Looking at the numbers of refugees that arrived last year on the Eastern Aegean islands of Samos, Chios and Lesvos, makes you sad. About 10,000 people, mainly from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Palestine and Iran managed to reach these Greek islands alive. About 100 people drowned or are missing during the journey across the sea. Even then, the 50 people that drowned last month during the start of their trip, in bad weather in the sea near Turkey, aren't included in this number.

On the first of December the new asylum centre on Samos was finally opened. Last year over 4,000 refugees reached this island, which is a lot because there are only 35,000 inhabitants. But Samos, of all the Greek islands, is closest to Turkey. A refugee was proud to tell that he made the sea trip from Turkey to Samos in only 40 minutes. The cost of this short trip, including a place in an inflatable boat, is between 600 and 900 dollars.

The arrival of refugees here on the islands is now in the national and often the international news on a daily basis. Which means that finally there's a reaction from Athens. They will send more police to the islands, specialists in dealing with asylum seekers, and they will make sure that these people are treated correctly.

We didn't see as large a number of refugees arrive as on Samos, but also here on Lesvos you could see that their numbers more than doubled. The nearly daily groups of strangers lounging at the bus stop have become a familiar sight.

The stranded inflatable dinghys have become part of the beach landscape. There are no heaps of seaweed without such a green or yellow dinghy sticking out. If the refugees weren't so afraid of being sent back in these little boats, which is why they slash them on arrival, everybody in Molyvos would now own a little rubber dinghy.

Before Christmas there were campaigns to collect clothes for the refugees. Well, there shouldn't be such a collection, it would be enough if one person would be responsible for gathering all the clothes the refugees leave behind. This person could clean them and bring them to the asylum centre. Nowadays you not only find Greek rubbish everywhere in the countryside, but also refugees clothes in the strangest places. They say that they come empty handed, but they just leave their wet clothes behind. I understand that when they arrive in Europe, they like to change into dry clothes, but I don't understand why they leave behind valuable possessions like good jeans, jackets and backpacks.

Mister George Selimis, a resident of Athens, but originally from Mytilini, had two things: cancer what made him die recently and an extreme love of buying clothes. He bought jackets, t-shirts, shoes and trousers in the most expensive shops, but never wore them. After his death it was decided that his clothes should be donated to the asylum centre in Mytilini. I'm wondering what they'll think when they receive their brand new clothes from the finest shops, something like 150 jackets, 58 pair of shoes and an unknown number of shirts and trousers...

50 years ago Greece was itself a country from which its inhabitants fled to look for a better life elsewhere. Now they have became a country for refugees, a situation they are not really ready for. I don't know if there were people fleeing over the sea during the turn of the year, if so they would have been received by the fireworks of Molyvos. They probably wouldn't have been noticed that night. The New Year was celebrated in full swing at the Bazaar nightclub and the other inhabitants were nearly all deep asleep by one o'clock.

So the New Year here had a quiet start. I wish the world a peaceful year, so that not too many people wish to leave their homes and families in order to look for a better life... Kali Chronia!

Copyright © Smitaki 2008

Christmas Shopping Online

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. However, in very early times, centuries before this holy child was born, it was the birth of the sungod Mithra, that was celebrated, amongst others by the Greeks, on the 25th of December. Originally it was an Iranian god that fought evil. He won the battle with the holy bull and slaughtering the bull, from its blood grew plants and animals.

In the fourth century BC Mithra and Mithraism became very popular, like with Roman soldiers. Hundreds of years later, when Constantine the Great converted to Christianity, this pagan religion passed into the background. But still this religion has believers and there's even a polemic about the similarities beween Mithra and Jesus. Was Mithra the precursor of Jesus?

Mithra was also born on the 25th of December. His mother was a virgin. Mithra had 12 helpers and just like Jesus he performed miracles. He gave his life for peace on earth, he ascended from his death and like Jesus he was called the Good Shepherd. The question if Jesus was a copy of Mithra I leave up to the theologians. If I've made you curious you will find all about it on the internet.

Two years before Constantine the Great was born, in 270, Saint Nicolas was born in Lycia in present day Turkey. As bishop of Myra he not only did good deeds, but he also fought against pagan religions (like Mithraism), that still had believers in that time. It's said that it was Saint Nicolas who gave orders to destroy the famous Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, a building that was seen at the time as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

If it had been in our time that Saint Nicolas destroyed such a beautiful temple, he would have been called a cultural barbarian. But as we all know, Saint Nicolas finally became one of the most popular Saints of Christianity. In the last century and a half he even got a great alter ego: Santa Claus. (see Lesvos News 102: Saints Claus) Although Saint Nicolas was not born that far away from Lesvos, a real Saint Nicolas celebration (like in Holland) is not known on the island. Here Saint Nicolas is the patron saint of seamen, which gives him enough work to do.

Santa Claus' popularity in Greece however is growing more and more by the year. The celebration of Christmas looks more and more like the American way. The shops bulge with enormous inflatable Santa Clauses and reindeers. The shopping streets of Kaloni with their illuminated Christmas bells, Santa Clauses and reindeer sleighs remind you of the bright lighted streets in New York and all the Christmas dolls, Santa Clauses, Christmas trees and Christmas decorations have pushed everything else from the shop windows.

Houses more and more are decorated with lighted ornaments and even Molyvos, where the shops still open can be counted on the fingers of one hand, looks like an illuminated little city, although it's still Petra that's number one with Christmas decorations. As if this Christmas is truly a celebration of light, that will even make Mithra be honoured.

And we need all that light, because the grey and wet weather of the last months doesn't contribute make you feel that you are in Greece. Above all it is dull. I am not complaining, mind you, because I have got enough to do in the house. But life outside is cold and wet. Last week we didn't even notice that officials were on strike. In Athens life came to a stop, in Molyvos everything continued in its slow way. Even though work at the olive press was stopped for a day. The sacks of olives and the gossiping Greeks around them just waited until the next day.

Last week life also came to a stop in the North of Greece, because of heavy snowfall. Lepetimnos just got a light dusting of snow on its top for a few hours. No real snowfall disturbed life on Lesvos. The only upsets were on Saturday night when a mild earthquake rocked some people out of their sleep and on Sunday evening Santa Claus was shaking hands with the children gathered at the Christmas fair. Christmas with all its shiny lights will make for some more liveliness.

Although that will be only in the kitchen and at the dinner table. Turkey tries more and more to replace the traditional Christmas plate of pork with celery, or goat, on the Greek menu. There are no special side dishes. But the women bake mountains of cookies, like the kourambiedes and melomakaronas. Plenty of them are distributed to the children that knock on the doors to sing their Christmas carols. They use a triangle or a little trombone as accompaniment for their fast sung 'kalanda', which bring peace and luck to the homes. After these good wishes the children are rewarded with candy and cookies. I don't think there's much chance that Greek children will knock on your door, but I won't deprive you of a recipe for a mountain of these delicious kourmabiedes.

Ingredients: 2 kilos plain flour
1 kilo unsalted butter
300 grams icing sugar
300 grams ground roasted almonds
1 small glass cognac
1 teaspoon baking soda
Rosewater

Preheat the oven to medium (175°C). Soften the butter by beating by hand for ½ hour. Add the sugar, cognac, almonds and finally the flour, mixed with the baking soda. Continue to beat until all ingredients are well mixed. Mould into the familiar shapes of the kourambiedes and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with rosewater, then roll in the icing sugar.

Happy Holidays!

Copyright © Smitaki 2007

Greek Images

Do you remember the television serial from 1977 'Who pays the ferryman'? It was a popular serial about an Englishman who served in Crete in World War II and returned later to this Greek island and its wayward inhabitants. It's set in the Sixties and looking back at the serial you will see that not that much has changed in Greek life. Especially not on Crete, where for the last few weeks the little village of Zoniana has been in the news, because after a shoot out with the police, in which a police officer was badly wounded, the whole village was turned upside down by a huge police raid. They found out that the village was full of criminals. Shepherds with millions in their bank accounts, discovery of weapons and drugs finally prompted the government to make a full investigation.

The criminals were first protected by the citizens, as is the Cretan tradition. So you could see old ladies trying to hit the police with their handbags. But with the evidence of bank raids and money laundering, even the villagers had to admit that it was time their village was cleaned up.

The large police actions caused a big stir, not only in the whole of Greece but also in the new media hype YouTube, where you can find not only home movies that parody the police force invading the village, but also the village itself, which were promoted with the slogan: "Live your myth in Greece". Well, this myth you can see for yourself on YouTube, where heavily armed police officers search the village or where apes dance the traditional dance 'sirtaki'.

By the way, the famous sirtaki dance, to the music of Mikís Theodorakis, was only created in 1964, during the making of 'Zorba, the Greek'. This film, based on the book of the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis, was made on Crete by Michael Cacoyannis. The star, Anthony Quinn, made the movie as well as the dance a classic all over the world. The story goes that the chasapiko dance was too difficult for Quinn. So they invented an easier one, which became the 'sirtaki' or 'Zorba's Dance', which is nowadays known by, as well as all Greeks, by all tourists that visit Greece. Did you forget how to dance the sirtaki. Learn it with Anthony Quinn on YouTube!: Zorba the Greek!

YouTube is getting to be a fascinating archive of images. Not only can you find there the Muppets doing a Greek dance, all dance lovers can learn all kinds of different Greek dances. For example home movies on YouTube show how the Zeibebikos is danced on Lesvos, or the dance of the horses (Kiorogloe) in Agia Paraskevi, or the local dances (Aptalikos, Karsilamas) of the Sardines Festival at Skala Kaloni.


And if you really feel homesick for Lesvos, you can choose from a lot of more or less obscure movies about the island, where it is up to you to guess where the pictures were taken.

However, my favourite YouTube movies are by the Orthodoxos, a Greek-American husband and wife, who give Greek cooking lessons. Greek cooking mostly starts with peeling onions. And this is where the troubles start with the Orthodoxos: who will peel the onions? Well, don't worry, finally the onion will be chopped and the dishes made: rice with spinach, meatballs, stuffed vine leaves or fajin: The orthodoxos

'Politiki Kouzina' (A touch of spice) is a movie by Tassos Boulmetis (2003) that does not teach you how to cook Greek, but it teaches you all about the spices used by the Greeks. It's the story of a family that flees from Turkey back to Greece. But the grandfather, who has a spice shop in Istanbul, doesn't want to leave and stays in Turkey, while his grandson, who was taught the love of spices by this grandfather, waits for his arrival in Greece. Cooking is central to this movie and I guarantee you that after seeing 'Politiki Kouzina', certainly you will change your cooking.

Not that I cooked that much last week. I was hit so hard with the flu that I only surfed on YouTube, or watched again some serials like 'Who pays the ferryman', or some movies. The island was also exceptionally quiet. Undisturbed by the heavy rains and some really loud thunderstorms. Even the electricity seems to have become used to the bad weather. Only the Christmas market in Molyvos had to be cancelled, due to heavy rains, and was postponed until later this week.

And then I saw this beautiful movie 'Ulysses gaze' (1995) by the Greek-American director Theodoros Angelopoulos. This movie did not make me cheerful, although it's a movie that you have to watch more than once. It made me sad, which is very dangerous during this depressing unGreek weather we're having. That's why it's good that there is YouTube to do a little surfing: you will always find something there that will cheer you up: Never on Sunday


Copyright © Smitaki 2007

Flowers of the wind

Even though I regularly eat chorta, consume lots of fresh vegetables and drink plenty of juice from the oranges that have started to fall off the trees, the flu hit me really hard.

And it's not only me that's not well. Outside, where one day the south wind blows our garden chairs towards the sea, the next day it's a northern storm that blows them back again. The weather keeps on jumping from cold to warm and mild weather, from heavy thunderstorms and lots of rain to blue skies where majestic clouds hurry to somewhere else. The only things that are missing are the white capped Olympos and Lepetimnos against a pure blue sky.

All these changing moods make me low and now I'd better hide in my bed. You'd think that nature would hold back as well. Imagine my surprise at finding heads of wild asparagus peeking eagerly above the bushes in order to find the spring. Well, according to the popular Greek calendar, winter only starts in about a month, in January, and lasts until the beginning of March, when the asparagus are growing.

I also found some early daffodils that tried to poke their heads through an olive net. Two years ago I caught these spring messengers flowering too early, at Christmas, but now they are one more month earlier still.

However, the flowers I now think are really crazy are the anemones. Since the end of November they have come up in bushes! The anemones have always been the first flowers of spring. The first winter we were here, we saw the first at the end of January. Last year we saw the first one already at the end of December, and this year... Hello, winter is approaching, not spring!

Anemones are also called flowers of the wind: anemos is the Greek word for wind. According to mythology they were created from the tears of Aphrodite. This goddess of love was often in love. But when she met Adonis, a young and beautiful god, she fell deeply in love. The God of the war, Ares, however became jealous and sent a boar to attack Adonis. During the struggle Adonis lost his life, and Aphrodite started shedding many tears. The tears mingled with Adonis blood, the wind blew them away and everywhere you could find blood red anemones.

These red beauties only appear after the anemones of every hue from white to purple fill the fields. In mythology I couldn't find an answer to this phenomenon, but I bet some jealous God will be in the story.

Maybe the anemones just count the windy days before opening. This autumn has already had as many storms as can blow in January. So it really looks like spring is needed. But we still have three months to go before we can welcome this joyous season.

Cyprus, where Aphrodite was born and where, according to Greek mythology, anemones are also born, doesn't have normal days either. The island has problems because all those nasty clouds and showers never reached them. On the island, archbishop Chrysostomos called for all churches to pray for rain. The reservoirs on the island have so little water left that probably by the end of the year the water will be finished.

Here on Lesvos, the weather stays animated (also a word that comes from anemos). Rain is hammering against the windows. Well, asparagus, daffodils and anemones, do whatever you like. The weather is much like winter, my head is more like a thundercloud, my nose equals a rain cloud, I'd better go back to bed. Goodbye.

Copyright © Smitaki 2007