Meat Week

This is the second week of carnival, called Kreatini, meat week.  It is the last week of meat eating before Easter Sunday, if you're a strict member of the Orthodox church.  The highlight of the week is Tsiknopempti, translated loosely as Smokey Thursday.

It is a day to fill up on Bbqed meat.  The 'smokey' comes from that enticing smell as fat falls on to the coals and lets out a cloud of seductive aromatic smoke .

Everywhere on the island small bbqs were set up along the wharf, outside shops and on the roadside in the back streets as every household got ready to bbq at least a leg of chicken, a sausage or a lamb chop.

Lighting the coals opposite the butcher's shop.  Soon there'll be a crowd of friends and customers waiting for blackened, fatty morsels to be handed out with a glass of wine.  Where there is food and drink there will be music too and as the rythm gets into the blood (along with the alcohol) there will energetic lines of dancers and men leaping into the air .

Tall grandson dressed up as a bottle of Mythos beer

At the school the kids were treated to  free grilled meat-on-a-stick (souvlaki).  They all (including the teachers) dressed up in carnival costumes and danced in the playground.

Anyone going out to a taverna on this night wears some sort of costume or silly hat or mask and (greek) dances till dawn.  Been there, done that many times.  Every taverna in town would be crowded and literally bursting with revelling feasters.  From the taverna we would move on to the bars on the waterfront downtown, going from one to the other, drinking and dancing in the street.  

We grew up and then the economic crisis came along to knock back the remaining revellers.  Most families gather in someone's home but those that do go out no longer have the means to make merry as though there was no tomorrow.

Our little bbq outside on the terrace.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we all sat outside and ate lamb chops and chicken pieces.  

A small meze while waiting for the main course.  Lemon juice and mustard on the meat for the greeks, tomato sauce/kets-ap for me

Friends and neighbours called in and there seemed to be endless heated discussions with everyone giving their own indisputable viewpoint on olives, the Macedonian question, this year's tax bill and why greece is the greatest nation mankind has ever known.

At 4pm it was getting mighty chilly and I lit the fire inside but it was another hour before they could let themselves take a break and move indoors.

Today is Psyho-Savato, Saturday of the Souls.  My sister-in-law prepared a plate of boiled wheat with sugar, raisins, pomegranite seeds and cinnamon to take to church to be blessed.  She gives the wheat out at the end of the service.  There were probably another dozen plates made by the faithful on a table in front of the church.  The plates are accompanied by a piece of paper listing the names of all those family members you would like to be remembered with special prayers.

After church the priest goes down to the graveyard and will say a blessing over the graves if asked and then suitably rewarded.

Next week is the third and last week of carnival and is called 'Tyrini', cheese week.  

There will be more ......