There is another song we sing on the day of the Epiphany. You go to school on the day after the Epiphany, which is St. John’s day. And we sang a very nice song. We went door to door with the lanterns and sang this little song. There were 2 children holding lanterns and they…
– What else should I tell you? – About the weddings. – You mean about the real weddings? Not the game? – Not the game. Because my nanny got married a short time ago and I was a bridesmaid. – Good for you, darling! They didn’t get married in churches so much. …
As a summer custom, you may have seen it because it still goes on, the custom of “Afanistis”, on the 23rd of June. They light fires and they jump over them. This took place in each neighbourhood on the eve of St. John ‘Afanistis’. Because he got his name of course from the ancient word…
– Holy Tuesday was when mothers would bake the cookies. And other than what they usually made, they also made the ‘Lazarakia’. -Oh! The ‘Lazarakia’! – The little rings. In the middle we put a red egg, and plaited its little legs around it. They looked like legs, like braids. These rings were big. …
She talks about Christmas and when they decorated, about the Epiphany and the goblins, that they did not have plastic trees, she shows a picture of her tree, about the candles instead of lights, about the sweets they made and that they did not have an oven, about fireplaces, about gifts, about St. Basil. …
In Syros, you know that back then the housewives, other than ‘Kourabiedes’ and ‘Melomakarona’, they also made these little cookies, like small Melomakarona. Because in Ermoupoli, the people who built Ermoupoli, most had come as refugees from Chios, the island of Chios. And they brought many nice sweets from Chios. And they made these little…
She tells the children what she did when she was young during Christmas, when they decorated, when they made the sweets and that they had no oven at home, but took them to the neighbourhood bakery, where they cut a tree on their own and decorated it, shows a picture of their tree when she…
-The day after tomorrow is Saint Nicholas’ day, do right? The island celebrates Saint Nicholas’ name, do you know that? This was always going on. On Saint Nicholas’ day, the icon would come down from Saint Nicholas Church, and there would be a march, with the band. On Saint Nicholas’ day, the square was lit…
-Here, at the Lyceum of Greek Women, there is a boat somewhere in here. A big paper boat. A paper and wooden boat. The children would take this boat on New Year’s Eve and take it around Syros. And they have these large shells. Do you know them? Triton’s trumpets? That make a “woooo”…
