Week Four: My Birthday Is a National Holiday in Greece

No, really...it was. (PS - my birthday was on Monday, March 2, just in case you forgot to send me my present...wink wink, nudge nudge)

Okay, so the national holiday was for "Clean Monday" the first day of the Greek Orthadox Lent, and not ACTUALLY for my birthday, but same difference right?

Let's back up for a minute, though. You may remember my pictures from last week of of the Carnival celebration, right? Well, that was just part of the fun. For the last couple weeks before the start of Lent Greeks, like Brazilians and others, have some rather extravagant festivals. Last week's photos are one example from a local Thessaloniki celebration.

This weekend, we went to a town in Eastern Greece called Xanthi. They have a HUGE Carnival parade the last Sunday before lent starts - this year, March 1. Big groups of people get together, wear the same costumes and participate in the parade with some floats. The crowd brings confetti, silly string, and a spray resembling shaving cream to add to the parade participants' costumes. The parade-ers also bring with them face paints which they dip their fingers into and spread on the faces of the crowd as they go along.

All and all, a great time, though I wish we could've stayed longer. Xanthi is located in a part of Greece that has one of the few remaining Turkish populations in Greece. In the early 1920s, at the conclusion of one of the wars between Greece and Turkey, the two agreed upon a population exchange to ensure the safety and freedoms of the ethnic populations that were living in the other nation. This means that ethnic Greeks living within Turkish borders were (sometimes forcibly) moved into Grecian territory, and vice versa. The exchange involved approximately 2 million people. This means that there are now very few Greeks living within Turkish boundaries and very few Turks living within Greek boundaries. If we had been able to find a hotel in Xanthi, it would've been interesting to visit one of these few remaining Turkish towns.

Now, my national holiday, Clean Monday is traditionally celebrated with kite flying, eating a certain type of bread, and going out to a kind of restaurant called a taverna. Unfortunately, we wound up sleeping most of the day away since our trip to Xanthi lasted from about 5am to 4am. We did make it out to a taverna, though! Tavernas are a particular kind of restaurant in Greece that tend to serve meals family style at big long tables where different parties sit right next to each other. There is live music every night (usually a guitar and a mandolin with vocals). The environment is always boisterous and the wine is usually free (and served by the liter).

All in all, the week(end) seemed to be thoroughly representative of the most fantastic elements of Greek culture...Greeks are a people that enjoy life, and rarely take themselves to seriously. How refreshing...

Pictures from this week aren't uploaded to my computer yet. Check back tomorrow for some!