Grab a mask and go! The city of Athens slips into something more festive and invites young and old to its grand party. The capital’s neighbourhoods are ready to welcome Apokries with plenty of music, masks, mimes and merriment. For 12 days up until Kathara Deftera (Clean Monday) – signalling the beginning of Sarakosti (or 48-day Lent) – Athenians and visitors to the city will get the chance to hang loose.
This year, the Athens Carnival is organised by non-profit cultural organisation Lykeion ton Hellinidon, which was established in 1911 to preserve traditional Greek folk costumes and dances. No wonder, then, that folk song and dance, alongside costume parties, parades and plenty of food and drink, sprout throughout the city.
“Our basic aim is to bring the revelry to your door, to our residents, to the squares and the pedestrian walkways,” says Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis . “The Athens Apokria has three types of events: those that take place centrally, locally and of course, Clean Monday, which customarily takes place atop Filopappou Hill,” says the mayor.
Keeping tradition alive
The main events revolve around the city’s so-called Historic (or Commercial) Triangle in the districts of Plaka, Monastiraki, Thisseio, at Syntagma Square and at Athens’ Technopolis Arts Centre .
The carousing starts on February 12, the second Thursday of the carnival season, better known as Tsiknopempti (Smoke Thursday). This is traditionally the day when Greeks consume hefty quantities of grilled meat (hence the day’s name) prior to entering Lent as of Clean Monday. Actors, singers and dancers bring to life the age-old tradition of the trata (fishing boat), where young men paint themselves black, wear bizarre masks and bells and go around the streets and squares creating havoc, telling dirty jokes, satirising politics and … declaring the start of Carnival Season. The colourful procession begins in Monastiraki Square , goes through the central Varvakeios market and stops in front of City Hall.
And since Carnival is all about taking to the streets, organisers have made sure that music plays a central role in setting the mood. Conjuring images of carnival celebrations in the past, the City of Athens Philarmonia, the Dionysios Lavrangas Choir and Mandolinata serenade visitors through the cobblestone lanes of Plaka with cantatas of yesteryear and songs of wine and merriment.
Apokria wouldn’t be complete without traditional song and dance. That’s where this year’s wide variety of guests come in: the Lykeion Hellinidon dance troupe, the multi-member Estoudiantina Neas Ionias presenting traditional songs from Asia Minor, Haridimos and his Karaghiozis shadow puppet theatre, clarinetist Manos Achalinotopoulos, singer Sofia Papazoglou and child wonder Areti Ketime in demotika folk songs, the Tyrnavos dancers, bell and traditional Greek drum daoulia players and much more.
Singer-songwriter Babis Tsertos and his eight-member band perform laika, rebetika http://www.rembetiko.gr/essay/essay.htm and Asia Minor songs. Stelios Vamvakaris, son of the “father of the rebetiko”, Markos, remembers his father with rebetika (Greek blues idiom) together with Vangelis Liolios and singer Sotiria Leonardou.
For kids, sweethearts and dressed-ups
Traced back to Classical Antiquity and the festivities to honour revelling wine-god, Dionysus , Apokria (which in Greek means “away from meat”) has traditionally been viewed as a chance to break loose from the social confines.
Yet Carnival is above all a festive season, luring everyone to have fun. The more so with kids; thus a partying galore for the little ones is naturally in store. At the Athens Technopolis – the former gas works plant, turned into an architecturally intriguing cultural center – youngsters are invited to take part in kite- and mask-making workshops, fun and games amid clowns and stilt-walkers.
On Valentine’s Day (February 14), the spotlight is on central Kotzia Square, where chart-topping crooner Mihalis Hadjiyannis sings songs of the heart off his latest albums. Win a CD and offer your Valentine a kiss and some chocolate under the romantic gaze of artist Antonis Kyriakoulis’ posters.
Finally, each and everyone is invited by the mayor herself to the Bal de Tete masquerade bash, where original and impressive headdresses may win anything – from a Mercedes and scooters to a trip to Venice .
Carnival Season festivities culminate on Clean Monday (February 23), when Athenians young and old usher in the first day of Megali Sarakosti with traditional flatbread ( lagana ), countless seafood snacks (mezedakia) and the time-honoured flying of the family kite atop Filopappou Hill while fine instrumentalists entertain the crowds till dusk. So grab a jacket, your kids or loved ones and enjoy the city in all its colour and glory.
