About Me

My photo
Crete, Greece
Married to the lovely Geoffrey, my soulmate. I have two fantastic big kids,both married, whom I love and miss every day I'm not with them, but I know they're living and loving their lives and we make up for time when we get together.I now have three granddaughters too...

Saturday 27 July 2013

Summer Night.....Festival Season...

If your name is Evi, Evita, Vivian, Voula, Paraskevi, Veti,     Congratulations!!( κρόνια πολά )
Here on Crete it was your name-day yesterday, big celebrations in your year, bigger than your birthday!!
We have a church for the saint of Pareskevi (Παρασκεβή) in our village,
so last night was our festival night.
Normally, the village is a sleepy little place, most of the inhabitants are asleep by early evening.
Not last night...no...
the old school playground was filled to the brim with tables and chairs, hundreds of them!!
Of course things don't kick off until 21.00 to 22.00
We all enjoyed a wonderful meal, loads of μεζέδες (starters) and 
then 'pork from the oven,'  'chicken in wine', 
vegetarian bean dishes....
wine, beer, water...
A popular tipple at these occasions is a bottle of whiskey...costing 50 euros a bottle..
The music played on and the ladies got up and started 
dancing, wonderful to watch!! 
Give them a while and these chaps will be strutting their stuff..
While some just prefer to 'people watch'
These girls make it look so easy but as the tempo hots up they become whirling dervish..
The band played on, typical Cretan music played on 
a lyra
and an 'askomandoura'.....a type of bagpipe, made from the skin of a goat or sheep..

The evening was good, enjoyed with friends.
We walked home after one o'clock, as Geoff was working this morning
As we walked up the hill, we were passing groups of more people going down to start their festivities...
I woke at 0400 and the band was still in full flow..
and I suspect there was still dancing ............


Today (27th July) is 
Pantelis
Panteleimonas
name-day

Have you ever been to a Greek Night? have you tried Greek dancing?
Please, tell me what you thought about them..















7 comments:

Pondside said...

No to both questions - but that doesn't mean I wouldn't love to get up and give it a try!

Clare Wassermann said...

Yes but only in a Greek restaurant in London on the odd occasion. Can't remember much!!!

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Aeons ago , we went out to Australia on a Greek boat . I managed to avoid actually dancing , which was probably just as well ...

Cheryl said...

I was just dancing the other night- lots of fun! Nothing like it! :)

chris, milatos said...

yes to both, enjoyed the night, but the dancing just left me standing after awhile. So spend my time people watching. Glad you had a good time. Photo's are lovely. x

Lynne said...

Reminds me of the wine festivals they have here in Germany.

LynneW said...

No to both questions. We are coming to Crete later in the year and would love to try it.