Holiest of the holiest

15th August is the biggest holiday in the Greek Orthodox church, in the Greek calendar. The country grinds to a halt to   'observe' the death or the 'sleeping' of the Virgin Mary (Panagia).  City dwellers by the thousands quit Athens and Thessaloniki, a good time for the Turks to invade, a good time to visit and see the sites without the traffic and the noise.   The streets are empty except for tourists.  Everyone who can returns to their village, their family home, their island to celebrate with friends, neighbours and countless relatives.  Many (like our elderly neighbour) will have been fasting since the end of July and attending the evening church services. 

 One of the Holiest places to visit is the island of Tinos.  Those who have prayed to the miraculous icon of  Mary in the church of the Blessed Virgin will crawl on their knees from the harbour to the church to ask for  her divine intervention or in thanks.  

Many times when K was in the Navy he took part in the parade of the miraculous icon on Tinos as part of the honour guard, all dressed up in his best white uniform, with white gloves and sword in hand.  Today the Frigate Navarino, troop carrier Chios and a torpedo boat from the Greek Navy are cruising offshore, their officers and many of the crew are in church this morning at attention in respect of the Panagia.  The ceremony is shown live on TV.  Members of Parliament and the country's bigwigs are in the church but not the Prime Minister who is an athiest.  

In the evening there is a wreath laying ceremony on the sea and service for those of the destroyer Elli which was torpedoed on the 15th August 1940 by the Italian submarine Delfino, just before the outbreak of war.

On many of the islands festivites go on for two or three days.  Chairs and tables are set out in the main squares, there is live bouzouki music and free food and wine is provided for all the villagers and visitors.  Huge cauldrons of bean soup (fassolatha) or boiled meat will be prepared by the men while the women are cooking local delicacies and sweets.  Everyone takes part in the dancing and singing, from the very young to the old bent legged crone and the awkward tourist.

Don't expect to find a doctor or any other professional this week.  All will be away on holiday.


On the island of Paros the celebration takes place in the Church of 100 Doors (Ekatontapyliani), of which only 99 can be seen.  When the 100th door is revealed Greeks will take back Constantinople (Istanbul) from the Turks.  It is predicted that the city will be reclaimed by someone called Konstantinos who has 6 fingers.  Well, our K-onstantinos has 6 fingers so it is just a matter of time while he gathers his army of faithful followers lol. 

On the island of Kefalonia (Ionian islands) in the village of Markopoulou from the 6 to the 15th August snakes appear inside and outside the church of the Virgin Mary.  If they don't materialise it is a very bad omen, as in 1940 and 1953 when the island suffered huge earthquakes.  The snakes bring luck to the island and all visitors.

In northern Greece another holy place of worship is the Monastery Panagia Soumela. We visited this years ago on a trip to Thessaloniki (in the good old days).  I remember the immense church as absolutely freezing.  It was like walking into an echoing marble igloo.  But they did have clean loos, most important after winding up a long snowy mountain road.

In almost every family preparations will be  taking place for a party as 15th August is the name day of those named Maria, Panagioti, Panayiota and all the variations.  Our 'sinpethera' Nota (Panayiota) , the mother-in-law of our daughter, celebrates this day and always provides a magnificent  feast for all the brothers and sisters, nephews, neices, children, grandchildren, great granchildren, cousins and us. Her daughter and the family have already arrived from Athens to stay for the long weekend along with various nephews.  I cannot work out where everyone sleeps in the small house but it doesn't matter.  They all enjoy each others company tremendously and have a wonderful time together.

Tasoula, who makes the best sourdough bread ever.  Soft, chewy and so tasty.  I can't work out how she does it although she has given me some hints.  Experience counts here for sure.  Tasoula has been baking bread for the extended family for many years.

And Nota, who will cook everything and anything.  Her dinner tables are always full of food cooked with the utmost love.  No one ever leaves her house hungry.

 Her two unmarried sisters will be baking homemade bread and their speciality fried cheese bread and together they will be peeling mountains of potatoes and roasting chickens and maybe one of their own goats, plus a hundred other tasty nibbles.  Her table always 'groans'.

This year we had a change of venue.  We all ate out at a local taverna.  The place was buzzing all night with long tables full of families celebrating name days.  Really enjoyable.  Perfectly grilled and seasoned lamb chops, salads which were also perfectly presented with imagination and a delectable vinagrette.  With such a crowd the food could have been mediocre.

And a chocolate 'tourta' to finish it all, with a huge great carving knife to cut it up.  It was simply YUM.

Poros is chock-a-block.  There are lines of  mercedes and BMWs outside the two big hotels, the beaches are packed and I doubt there are any rooms free to rent.  When this weekend is over we all breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Slowly people go back to work in the city and the weather may even get a little cooler.

CLEAN MONDAY

The carnival is over.  Lent has begun.  We had  a leisurely Clean Monday, though K did not think quite the same.  He and Kyriakos sat outside in the cold bbqing, boiling and cleaning all the seafood.  Kina in the half 'shell' has to be cut in the middle with a special 'implement'.  Crabs have to be boiled lightly, octopus and kalamari grilled and a sort of shiny cockle opened ready for slurping.  Small children were entertained with squirts of lemon juice which made the cockles wriggle and squirm. Cockles and mussels alive, alive-o.

Kina (sea urchins, ahinous) were snagged by K from our local bay using a piece of fishing net on the end of a long pole.  They are an endangered species now, although you would not think so when swimming around our bay.

I made half a dozen loaves of flat sourdough bread and lots of taramousalata.   For 'pudding' we had fruit doused with honey and cinnamon and a big halvas, made of semolina, sugar and oil.

No one ate too much, no one drank too much, the kids were reasonably uninvasive.  We sat around the table with only close family and a good friend, chatted and gossiped, listened to the wind and rain outside and stoked the fire to keep out the damp.

Not a day for picnics or kite flying.

The last two days we have had southerly winds and dense clouds of red sand from the Sahara with just enough rain to make it all stick.  The red dust cannot simply be rinsed off, cars and outdoor fixtures have to be properly washed and cleaned to get rid of it all.  Our windows and doors are covered in thick red raindrops.

a small child dressed up as a kalikanzaro, a sort of naughty imp, wielding a yellow plastic cricket bat (from NZ of course)

clean Monday table

25th March - National holiday with parades, wreath laying, poems, dancing and feasting with those named Evangelina or Evangelos.

This day is a religious and a political holiday.  It is Annunciation day - announcement day in simple language.  The angel Gabriel gave Mary a lily and told her she was the chosen one and would give birth in exactly nine months to the Son of God.

Also on this day many hundreds of years later Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag and started the revolution against the Turks.  The Greeks cried 'Freedom or Death' and began a 9 year war of independence.

There is a big military parade in Athens and in every village, on every island there is a parade of local bigwigs and school children, the laying of wreaths and patriotic music and dancing.

On the eve of the holiday our school kids have a small celebration at school where nationalistic poems are recited and there are small theatrical productions starring those historical heroes and heroines who took part in the long struggle.  Byron was also one of the heroes of the campaign and died in the swamps of Messalonghi in 1824.

The blue and white blue flag is flown outside houses and businesses and it is one of the few days of Lent when it is allowed to eat fish.  Traditionally this day the fish dish is salt cod and garlic sauce.

We went across to the inlaws on Galatas to celebrate with Kyriako's family.  His brother's name is Vangelis (Evangelos).  The salt cod has to be soaked for at least 24 hours to get rid of the salt and then it is fried in crisp batter.  The garlic sauce is made from stale bread soaked in water, lots of olive oil, many cloves of crushed garlic and a good dash of vinegar. 

Aunt Eleni, over 80, had fried 60 pieces of cod.  It is a large extended family.  The maiden aunts will feed  cod to all the cousins. uncles and aunts.With the left over batter she made a huge pile of little pancakes, great with wine and a few olives so I was told.

salt cod and garlic sauce - NOT fried fish and mash as I once thought.  What a nasty surprise

K puts up our flag

Me, left bottom corner with one of many glasses of wine

Refugees - Greece already had one million refugees before this latest crisis started - from the Balkans, India and Pakistan mainly.

Now almost 60,000 from Syria and middle east  and more arriving. 

15,000 refugees camped out in the mud in appalling conditons, and weather on the Macedonian border.

This route through the balkans is now officially closed but they refuse to leave and go to established camps......just in case.

5,000 refugees camped out along Piraeus harbor.  Also refusing to go to established camps. Fighting and protesting a daily occurrence.

Italian PM Renzi sent carabinieri to the help the Albanians secure their border with Greece.

Refugees now just a Greek problem  it seems. EU borders closed.

Is this Warfare by migrant invasion?

Je suis Bruxelles