The last of the summer saints (4

The last post on saints, till next time.
Hooray, you say

A summary of summer saints and a parade of  Poros churches 

Agios - male saint                    Eklisia - church
Agia   - female                          Papas   - priest
Agioi  - plural                            

5     June   Agia Triada  (Holy Trinity)  Note the all-seeing eye painted over the doorway.  Fiesta is 7 weeks after Easter.

24  June   St John the Baptist
 Burning of the May Day Wreath.  Jumping the bonfire.   Somewhere around here mid-summer is celebrated, summer solstice. 

One of the oldest churches on the island

29 June     Peter and Paul 
30 June     Apostolos

1  July      Agioi Anargyroi  - a huge 'panigyri' (festival) at the Monastery dedicated to these two saints, Kosmas and Damianos, down the road outside the town of Ermioni.

1 July      little church at Brysoula (the spring) which is dedicated to the Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary

7 July    Agia Kyriaki on the island of Angystri.  The road outside the church is strewn with branches of sweet smelling myrtle

17  July Agia Marina.  Saint who looks after small children. Below our old house. My sis-in-law helps look after the church

20  July   Profit Elijah (Elios in Greek)  His churches are found on hilltops close to the sun.  Sounds like the Sun God Helios!  In a grove of pines on the top of a hill.  We used to take our children for picnics here and later as scouts they camped under the pines.  It is an idyllic and peaceful setting.

25 July   Agia Anna    This is a little church across the sea on Galatas with two cypress trees growing  over it like two lovers.  The church is looked after by my daughter's inlaws

26  July   Ag Paraskevi

27 July   Agios Panteleimon 


6   August       Agios Sotiros

15 August       Virgin Mary.  One of the churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary in her many forms

23  August        Another of the fiestas of the Virgin Mary.  The fiesta day of the little church on Daskalio Island at the entrance to Poros harbour 

                                                                                 

26  August       Agios Adrianos and Agia Natalia

27  August       Agios Fanourios - the finder of lost things



29  August  Agios Yianni tou Fava (St John of the Split Pea) .  Why split pea? Probably just a local tradition to eat yellow split peas (pease pudding) on this day

30  August   Agios Alexandros

These are just a few of the numerous chapels on the island, all cleaned, painted and used for a service at least once a year on the day of the fiesta  of the saint to which they are dedicated.

And that's the end of the local saints (only the local saints) for June, July and August. Of course there are lots more in September, October, November and December and..........

Summer Fiesta (3

Down below our house, beside the sea  at Vayionia, preparations have been going  on for days for one of the islands biggest summer parties.  On the eve of St Paraskevi's fiesta many of the congregation will go to celebrate, as only Greeks can do, down at the beach or on the hill above at Paradise Taverna.



Tables and chairs fill up  the beach around the canteen below.  A big truck brought in hundreds of  cheap rented white plastic chairs and a few dozen extra tables which were set up along the shore.  

Huge trays of  pork were roasted in the big baker's oven in a village across the waters.  Kilos and kilos of wine and crates of beer were stacked around the small beach bar.  On a hot, sultry summer night it is a cold beer which will quench your thirst after a round of energetic greek dancing.

The bay gets crowded with small boats which anchor off shore to enjoy the show from the water.  Roast pork and beer get sent out on a surf board or by kayak. 

The success of the party depends on the music and the alcohol and next comes the food.  A greek saying states 'a hungry bear does not dance'.  But the music must have that beat which draws you to your feet  so your legs move to the rhythm.  You let  go, dancing and clapping and cheering on friends, pulling everyone up to the dance floor. The music must be loud, very, very, loud. And this goes on for hours and hours.  We could hear the music floating up from the beach below till after 4am.

  






The church dedicated to Agios Nektarios, owned by the family that run Paradise taverna.

At Paradise taverna Kiki and her son Vangelis provide for families who sit outside under the vines while the children charge around the tables and have fun in the small playground.
The taverna also serves pork but theirs is roasted in chunks on a spit.  This speciality is  'kondosouvli'.  Big pieces of pork are separated by tomatoes, peppers and onions and it is slowly turned over the coals.

Good wine, cold beer, ouzo, some of Kiki's homemade tzatziki or her big cheese pie called a 'tiropitari' are carried out in laden trays by her son Vangelis and her two daughters.

Kiki makes the bread just as her m-in-law, Theodora, has done done for the last forty years, cooking it in the wood-fired oven

The music here is not as loud but she knows what island songs everyone wants to hear  at a fiesta.    Here too a small crowd will get up to dance.  Dancing is always as much part of the celebration as the food.

Summer Saints (1

So you thought Greeks spent all winter celebrating?  New Year, Carnival, Clean Monday, Easter.  Just a few of those winter  festivites.  Add about another half dozen and numerous name days and winter just passes in a blur of raki and rollicking.

Then summer arrives.  Perfect weather.  No raining on your BBQ here.  People plan their holidays around local festivals, returning to their village or island to take part in sometimes days of feasting, dancing and drinking till the dawn. These are religious holidays of course, honouring the town's saint.  So you go to church first and then enjoy yourself with a clear conscience. 

Worshippers at a Cycladic island church (Serifos, Tinos, Naxos, Paros, Syros)

15th August, the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, is the biggest Greek holiday of the year.  The whole country closes down, except for eating, drinking and sleeping establishments. Athenians 
 depart by the thousands to spend a few days with relatives in the village or just get out of town.  Poros turns into one huge, hot, noisy traffic jam.  City slickers in their big black jeeps hog the narrow out-of-town roads and don't know where to pull over, or don't want to know, to let another car pass.  Quad bikes packed with bright pink tourists without helmets, a whole family to a bike, buzz around, whooping and yelling till late at night.

The Cycladic islands, with their blue and white architecture,  are renowned for their summer festivities.  Celebrations really do go on for three days or even a week and there is lots of dancing and feeding the masses with huge cauldrens of stewed mutton or boiled beans.  Each island has its own traditions which have been carried on for donkeys years, through dictatorship, earthquakes and financial bungling.

Feeding the masses

They will serve their local delicacies, wear the traditonal folk costumes of the area, dance to celebrate their roots and tradition.  The rhythm of an instrument, of a song familiar to them from birth gets into their blood, intoxicates them and there are few that do not join in the line of dancers under the trees in the square or outside the church.   Everyone loves to sing and dance, from the toddler to the most elderly bouncing around on aged limbs.

As I have never taken part in a Cycladic island rave-up I'll tell you about our own summer fiesta, tomorrow.  It is not only the cyclades that celebrate!

Summer Solstice

21st June 2017

Summer solstice in Greece takes place (took place) at 07:23:25

We had 14 hours 48 minutes and 13 seconds of daylight.  Tomorrow we'll have 2 seconds less.

Today, Wednesday, was the longest day of the year.  Odd to think that the days will be getting shorter and winter will be on it's way, although we won't actually notice any difference until September. 

I have just been reading about those who today follow the 12 Gods of Ancient Greece, the Olympians.  They consider Greece to be under Christian occupation.  21st June is a day of celebration for them.  Their New Year began (begins) on the first new moon after the summer solstice. 

In ancient times there were processions and offerings, especially to the Goddess Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, and the High Priestesses.   The ancient Olympic games began exactly one month after the solstice.

This midsummer solstice was celebrated everywhere from Stonehenge to ancient Gaul, Scandanavia, North and South America and China. 

The solstices were a part of the circle/cycle of life.  Down in New Zealand they are celebrating the winter solstice and the rebirth of the sun.

This year in Greece the solstice really does seem to be the beginning of summer.  We have had weeks of rain and lower (not low) temperatures.   Today it seems the rain is over, temperatures are rising and our first heatwave is forecast for this weekend.

In a few days time it is the local fiesta of St John of the Fleas.  Actually the Greek orthdox church celebrates the  birth of John the Baptist.  It is also the day when we should burn our now dried-out May Day wreaths at crossroads.  A bonfire which young children jump over three times to be free of fleas and nits during the hot dry summer to come.

Our wreath is ready for burning but will probably just be tossed in the rubbish this year

We used to do exactly this years ago when the children were small but fire restrictions nowadays means that bonfires are forbidden.  20 years ago we used to build huge fires out in the street and kids and adults alike would drag out old furniture and planks of wood to keep the fire burning.  One year, the last I think that we were able to celebrate this way, not only did the firebrigade turn up but also the Mayor, to see what was happening.  

Preparing the fire and pulling nails out of old boards

The following year the Mayor took over our street party and it became more civilised.  Nowadays it is a festival of song and dance arranged by a group called the Poriotisses  (the Women of Poros).  Very tame.  

FIESTAS, NAME DAYS AND CELEBRATIONS photos and writing

Celebrating with Paul and Karen, Linda and Danae close right

a mid winter visit January 2015

the girls - Elli ,Danae and Karen

leftovers, giant beans (gigantes), fried fishes and duty free toblerone !!!!!!!!!

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The holy bones of Saint Barbara have arrived in Greece from Venice where they have been held for the last thousand years.  St Barbara, or part of her, was welcomed with state honours by the Archbishop of Greece and will be on display for two weeks before being returned to Venice in a frigate of the Greek Navy.  More than 200,000  so far have waited in long lines for hours every day to worship the relics. 

The lines outside the church of St Barbara in the suburb of St Barbara in Athens are made up of Greeks of every age and social status.  It is not just a crowd of the elderly or the lame.  Young and old, everyone is there waiting patiently.  There will be the usual prayers for health but also no doubt quite a few prayers for a job or a little wealth to ease the tax burden and quite a few pleas for a bit of commonsense and logic for our political leaders.

The church is at the same time collecting medicine, either those that people have at home and no longer need or medicines and supplies that they buy and donate.

Greece is green and warm and mainly dry.  If only this weather would continue for the rest of the summer.  May is the best month of the year to visit.  The weather is warm enough to sunbathe although the seas are cold.  And the temperatures are perfect for sightseeing.

May 20th is Lydia's name day  and May 21st is the fiesta of Saints Konstantinos and Eleni.  The name day of Kostas, daughter Elli (Eleni), sister in law Dina (Konstandina), Nels (another Eleni) and her other grandmother Eleni and a few other aunts and inlaws.

It used to be a HUGE celebration.  Pigs roasted on the spit, baking dishes of lamb and potatoes, crates of beer and barrels of wine. And crowds of locals, friends, relatives, neighbours and acquaintances who knew where they'd get a feed.  It would start about ten in the morning and go on till  the wee hours when someone would have to carry the main celebrater off to bed and I would try and get rid of the stragglers and start sweeping up the debris.

Everyone brought bottles of expensive whisky, the best ouzo, boxes of sticky cakes and even a few items of name brand clothing.  K usually gathered in enough whisky to set him up till his name day the following year.

This years party was a very modest affair.  We had  a  leg of lamb roasted in the oven.  This had been given us by a friend who has sheep and slaughtered some over easter.  Then  some roast potatoes, greek style with lots of lemon juice, garlic and oregano.  Tzatziki, greek salad and bread.  Wine only and that from a friend's barrel.  Ours is finished.  There was feta cheese as well but I forgot it and it stayed in the fridge and wasn't missed.  What a difference.  But 'everyone' had a good time.  A neighbour and his wife and a friend of mine plus a short visit from one of K's nephews with a son-in-law and a stopover by another neighbour on his way to someone else's party.  Good company and good wine, plus a few olives, that's all that is needed 'so they say'.....now.  And it turned out to be true.  It was even warm enough to sit outside surrounded by the grape vines on the balcony.

K still managed to get 2 bottles of whisky, one of ouzo and a box of sticky cakes.

Today June 3rd is a big fiesta across at a tiny church beneath the lemon forest on Galatas.  The road leading to Galatas is lined with stalls selling any sort of junk you could think of from knickers to toys to bags and underwear plus the 1 euro stall where everything's a bargain. Local entrepreneurs (I have no idea any longer how that word is spelled) cook whole spit roasted pigs which are dismembered and sold by the kilo, wrapped up in greasy paper.   And 'loukoumathes', a sort of donut fried and covered in runny honey syrup and cinnamon and even chocolate covered nowadays.  Yum.

Little water taxis load up and chug across full of people from around 5pm when the church service starts till the early hours when the music stops.  The little taverna there brings in a big name singer and sells their own roast pig and cans of beer.         We used to stay for a few hours and K probably still would if not for the economic crisis.  Chairs and tables are set up in the sand, beer is sold by the can, pig is served in grease proof paper with plastic forks and paper twists of slat and pepper.  You are supposed to go and light a candle at the church before starting your shopping or merry making.