Thursday 2 January 2014

Sunny, Blue and cold. Role on Summer

 
Kamari Bay I love you whatever the season
 
 







Weddings and Dancing


 
 

If you ever get the chance to go to a Greek wedding then go and if you are close enough to attend the dressing then it’s an honour. Recently attending Popi and Gianni’s wedding I had the pleasure of listening to Aunty Evangelia and Maria sing to the bride as she got ready, it was a really special moment. The drive to the church involves a lot of noise and horn blowing and it’s an exciting time. Once inside the church I love the contrast of respect and religion, mingled with the apparent informality of standing around in church, coming and going and in some cases chatting. Despite the apparent to-ing and fro-ing everyone is totally absorbed in the ceremony. Coming from a background of sitting down, getting up again to pray or sing, and for the rest of the time sitting in absolute silence this seems a bit strange . I understand however that you get used to standing after a while. The smallest attendants can get a bit restless but it’s lovely to see them right at the front of the church watching and waiting for the priests to tell them what and when to do it.

 
The thing I like most about the Greek people is that no matter what age they all join in with the traditions and are brought up with them .The young people embrace their culture, unlike some in the UK who remove themselves as far from their heritage as they can. This doesn’t mean that young Greeks aren’t
en- trend or fashionable, but that they accept and enjoy the traditions.

 
The words ‘Be afraid, be very afraid, when you start to dance like your father’, just don’t seem to apply and no matter what age, my friends on Kos know how to and want to do the Greek dancing. It seems strange at a wedding not to have variety of 60’s-present day popular music where different generations take it in turn to boogie. In Greece they all get up and dance.