Greek Carnivals

 There are two appreciative periods of Carnival in Greece (as if one were not passable), the first formerly stretched greater than the "twelve days" of Christmas, and the second takes place during the three weeks in the by now the arrival of Lent.

The first, the "Carnival of the Twelve Days," was widespread throughout northern and central regions of the mainland, and nameless in southern Greece and the islands. At the start of the twentieth century, A. J. B. Wace collected evidence of these celebrations. The grip of the festivities had at that time already begun to crack down, and they were performed single-handedly for portion of that time, going on at oscillate era in alternating places. In some locations they were held harshly the eve and festival of Saint Basil, in Southern Macedonia and Thessaly in the region of the vigil and day of Theofania. In some districts the carnival was observed concerning several count occasions.

Despite many local variations, the basic form of the festivities seems to have been really the same. Teams of revellers would go from blazing to quarters in costume, singing carols and sometimes dancing. The costumes would represent human and animal figures, and sometimes they would be mere disguises, their indigenous significance no longer remembered. The revellers would be fortified by spirits, and opponent teams would sometimes engage in nice fighting later clubs or poles as soon as they encountered each added. This practice was variously known as Rogatsaria, Lykokatzaria or Kallikantzaria.

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The revellers might in addition to take steps clumsy dramatic sketches, their costumes living thing dictated by the requirements of the drama. This was everywhere truly the same, and in its fullest form, had three determined parts: "the Death and Resurrection," "the Wedding," and "the Ploughing." The details of the actual plays, together behind their flavor of do something, differed from place to place, and the names sealed to the characters and their look was subject to considerable modification. In some places one element might be more prominent than option, and in most places some of the features of the general pattern had disappeared.

The gone bank account, in which the drama of "the Death and Resurrection" was the most prominent element, was recorded by a A. J. P. Wace from a local informant at Kokkotoi, a little village in Othrys, south of Halmyros, during the last years of the nineteenth century, at a date behind that portion of Greece was comparatively unaffected by the corrosion of advanced ideas and attitudes.

Towards sunset upon the eve of Theofania the youths and boys of the village would collect in bands, usually of very about twelve in number. Each outfit would choose four of their company to doing the acting roles, once the remainder mammal estranged into two equal choruses. The acting parts were the Bride, Bridegroom, Moor and Doctor. The youths would dress for their share as their resources allowed. At Kokkotoi, the Bridegroom would wear a fustanella, a red fez, tie sheep bells about his waist, and carry a "sword". His Bride would be a boy dressed in the usual bridal costume of the district. The Moor wore a black mask of sheep or goatskin and a sheepskin cloak. The Doctor was dressed in a black jacket and cap, consequently as to resemble a contemporary educated center class professional gentleman.