Apokreas – Greek Carnival

I first arrived in Greece, at the beginning of February 1977, the winter season, no tourists and not much happening.

I spent about ten days here before making a quick trip back to England and returned by car.

 We disembarked, Sunday lunchtime, at the port of Patras, into the midst of absolute chaos and pandemonium; it was the climax of Greek Apokreas, the famous Patras carnival, the largest in Greece and one of the biggest in Europe, when Greeks go mad!

Thousands of people, or so it seemed, gone completely mad, all in fancy dress, dancing in the streets, Boney M’s “Daddy cool”, blaring from loudspeakers, and the finale, the ritual of burning “The King Of The Carnival”

What had happened to Greece whilst I had been away?

 It was Apokreas, or carnival, meaning “goodbye to meat”, derived from the Latin, ‘carne’, meaning meat, or flesh, and ‘vale’, meaning goodbye.

 Apokreas, Greek carnival, the run up to Greek Orthodox Easter, is not just a one day event, it begins three weeks before lent.

The first week, starts with the opening of the ‘Triodion’, the three Holy sacraments, the second week is ‘Meat week’, the last week for eating meat until Easter, and the third week, ‘Cheese Week’, or ‘White week’, as mostly dairy food is eaten.

The finale is the last weekend before Lent, which begins on ‘Cathera Deutera’, or Clean Monday’, the first day of Lent, a public holiday in Greece.

All this Greek madness came about thousands of years ago, under a different name:

 The Dionysia, the original Greek Carnival of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

I can’t say I really enjoyed this carnival period, my children thought I was superwoman and could produce numerous fancy dress costumes, from nothing and in no time!

 Everyday seemed to be a dressing up day, school parties, friend’s parties or street parades and they never wanted to wear the same costume twice!

How I wanted my daughter to dress up in the beautiful princess outfits which were displayed in the local shops but she was having none of it, ever the tomboy; all she wanted was Batman or Spiderman!

 When their teenage years arrived, I had a respite from my “creativity”, the carnival was not “cool”, it was for kids, I breathed a sigh of relief; this was the end of the dreaded carnival frenzy.

 Then, just when I was not expecting it, it sneaked back!

At the age of about 24, my daughter and her boyfriend revived the frenzy!

 Weeks before the event, they were discussing costumes; luckily, they didn’t involve me in this, ha, I had escaped!

 But no, wait, Mother had to make, or assemble the costumes; it was starting all over again.

 I do have to admit though, they had some very good ideas and the end results were brilliant.

 My favourite, was the one where they dressed as plants, I can’t tell you how long it took me to cover them in meters and meters of green leaves!

As you can see, it was well worth it!

 Can you spot Nais?

Then we had the “Rose Histories”

When talking about something smutty, or unmentionable, oh, all right, I’ll say it: porno, we say blue in England, here in Greece they say rose (Pink)

 Here we have a Japanese influence, they are as Geishas, I was roped into  doing their makeup!

The French influence, mime artist, Marcel Marceau, again, I was asked to do their makeup.

This year, nothing was mentioned about the carnival, I kept my mouth shut, didn’t want to jog any memories!

 It is the last Sunday of Apokreas, the grand finale, no strange items of clothing or tubes of white face makeup have been brought into the house.

 Am I speaking too soon?

Are Nais and Dimitris, this very minute, out buying stuff, that super mum is expected to magically turn into a “work of art” costume?

I can’t finish this post, without showing some of the exquisite costumes, seen every year, at the Venice Carnival, Surely, Venice is the carnival to end all carnivals.

Enjoy these three weeks of Greek of madness!

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Saint Valentine’s Day Originated in Greece , alleged to be the celebration of the coming of spring, as was the Dionysia, before it was renamed ‘Apokreas’, Greek carnival.