– Oh, I was shut in one Ash Monday, my children! And it was raining, it was winter, in the movie theatre. And there were relatives, friends, tables. And my father and his brothers played instruments. Songs until the sun came out. We ate the traditional dishes, the ‘taramosalata’, all that sea food, the halva.…
The “kales” are the good costumes which they wore at the Carnival. Costumes. Like we do now, what happens on the last Sunday of the Carnival in Skopelos (She shows a picture). This is from 1976, this is my father. This custom has disappeared in Skopelos. It used to take place a long time ago.…
During Christmas we had the ‘kalanta’ (carols). We went and sang the ‘kalanta’ to get treats. We had a bag, we sang and they would give us for example a handful of nuts, two oranges, two tangerines, things like that. And the richer people, if they could, they would give you a drachma, half a…
During the Carnival we made a boat out of reeds, like this one, with reeds. We would dress up and go to the houses, tell jokes, and they gave us treats. Very nice. We went to the square, we danced, we went to the beaches. On Ash Monday we danced. In those years, when I…
The customs are the same. During Easter we had the Epitaph, with the ‘myrofores’ (women bearing myrrh). The ‘myrofores’ wore a blue skirt and white shirt, and had a basket with a purple ribbon. They were the same. During Carnival the only different thing now is that we don’t wear the traditional costumes. The girls…
Another song. This goes from A to Z, all the letters of the alphabet. It starts like this: “My brunette lips, I am here for you. And I wandered the streets, trying to see you”. Many! Up to the last letter. Then there is this other song that says “Hold back your words, do them…
We had a very nice Carnival here. Not like nowadays, where we have the speakers and we sit and listen. We had local songs, we would dress up with the traditional ‘foustanela’ costumes, with scarves and ribbons, nice hats. And we would hold each other by the hand, sing carnival songs and dance around the…
