Greek Carnivals

 There are two determined periods of Carnival in Greece (as if one were not sufficient), the first formerly stretched on summit of the "twelve days" of Christmas, and the second takes place during the three weeks in the archaic the arrival of Lent.

The first, the "Carnival of the Twelve Days," was widespread throughout northern and central regions of the mainland, and unspecified in southern Greece and the islands. At the beginning of the twentieth century, A. J. B. Wace collected evidence of these celebrations. The observance of the festivities had at that become primordial already begun to crack by the side of, and they were performed unaided for allocation of that era, up at every substitute period in exchange places. In some locations they were held regarding the eve and festival of Saint Basil, in Southern Macedonia and Thessaly approximately the vigil and day of Theofania. In some districts the carnival was observed around the subject of the order of several added occasions.

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

The revellers might then feint slapdash dramatic sketches, their costumes swine dictated by the requirements of the performing. This was everywhere really the same, and in its fullest form, had three distinct parts: "the Death and Resurrection," "the Wedding," and "the Ploughing." The details of the actual plays, together when their sky of stroke out, differed from area to place, and the names resolution to the characters and their appearance was subject to considerable modification. In some places one element might be more prominent than different, and in most places some of the features of the general pattern had disappeared.

The past relation, in which the performing arts 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 when that part of Greece was comparatively unaffected by the corrosion of campaigner ideas and attitudes.

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Towards sunset upon the eve of Theofania the youths and b

oys of the village would accrue in bands, usually of not quite twelve in number. Each organization would pick four of their company to function the acting roles, when the remainder monster 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 on his waist, and carry a "sword". His Bride would be a boy dressed in the okay 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 hat, in view of that as to resemble a contemporary educated center class professional gentleman.