A secluded place on a secluded Greek island. One of the reasons that this place still keeps most of its traditions alive. That, and the richness of these traditions. A matrilocal community where the firstborn girl will be the sole heir to the family fortune. Olympians are descendants of the Byzantine Empire, where Byzantine traditions still survive in their most vivid form.
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The Byzantine Easter in Olympos, Karpathos.
As a photographer interested in Greek culture and traditions, I very much wanted to capture Easter in Olympos. Olympos is a somewhat secluded place, located on the island of Karpathos, where traditions are still strong. Situated 40 km from Pigadia, the capital of the island, Olympos is reached by a tricky road that was asphalted only as late as the 2010s. The people of Olympos regard themselves as descendants of the Byzantine Empire and are one of the few places in the world where a visitor can experience authentic Byzantine tradition, although other traditions are involved, too. This method of celebration has been registered in the UNESCO Archive of Worldwide Intangible Cultural Heritage.
I wanted to experience the customs of Olympos in-depth and get to know the people living there. And so I travelled to the island early in the season, when the village was still empty. I had found a place to stay in the village of Diafani, a nearby coastal settlement that serves as a port. In the past, people from Olympos involved in maritime matters would stay in this spot, so that houses eventually appeared and a village grew up. Today, Diafani is the second harbour of the island.
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Olympos is probably the most interesting spot on the island. It possesses beautiful architecture and stands on a hilltop set between two mountains. One can easily lose oneself in the narrow alleys and travel back in time.
The first few days of Holy Week are devoted to preparations for Easter, which consist mostly of baking. Around the village of Olympos, the community has built many wood-burning ovens. These can be used by anyone, as long as they use their wood and keep the ovens clean and tidy. During these days of Holy Week, traditional recipes are used for baking bread and cakes.
Notable religious rituals regarding Easter commence on the Wednesday of Holy Week, after Tuesday night’s Hymn to Kassiani. On Wednesday, the priest blesses those visiting the church, so they are ready to receive Holy Communion on Thursday. This is, however, not a busy day at the church and only a few people come for the blessing, since the priest also bestows it on Thursday, too, just before Communion.
I enjoyed my time in the village. Everybody I met was most hospitable. I learned a lot about the community simply through conversation with most of the inhabitants and through striking up friendships.
Kalliopi owns the local bakery and makes excellent traditional pies and bread in her wood-burning oven. She frequently gave me coffee during my stay and I even had the chance to visit her house, built in the traditional style of Olympos.
On Thursday, after churchgoers have received Communion, the Litany of Christ on the Cross is performed. The church becomes busier and the following days until Tuesday after Easter will be the busiest. Papa Yannis is the local priest. He is a very kind man with great pose and style. He is very funny and one can spot him most afternoons sitting on a chair in the central square, talking with his fellow Olympians and even cracking risqué jokes. One simply needs to get to know him somewhat before he loosens up.
He took the time to show me around the ancient main church of the village and explained the icons painted on the walls. During Holy Week, all the icons along the main iconostasis, where the icons are mounted in the church are covered with black embroidery as a sign of mourning.
Good Friday, the day of the Epitaphios, follows. The Epitaphios itself is a wooden representation of the bier of Christ, which the women of Karpathos decorate with flowers on the morning of Good Friday. Most of the women wear traditional local clothing. The older women of Olympos have no other type of clothes and call our clothing ‘European’.
An important difference between the Epitaphios of Olympos compared to the ceremony as it is held in the rest of Greece lies in the fact that pictures of the recently deceased are pasted to the bier and their relatives mourn for them during the service that takes place later, inside the church.
I considered the possibility of taking photos during the process of mourning in the church, as it seemed to me likely to be a powerful moment. It was so powerful, that it would have been disrespectful to take pictures during the proceedings. Indeed, so overwhelming were the emotions generated, that I soon left the church.
On Friday night, the Litany of the Epitaphios takes place in the streets of Olympos. During this fascinating ceremony, the streets are radiant with beauty. Those following the procession hold candles and chant the lovely Good Friday hymns. I had not been round the village previously and was intrigued by its architecture and location.
On Easter Saturday, all the village inhabitants prepare for the Easter cooking. The goats are slain in the morning and prepared by the village women. They stuff them with rice and seal them inside wood-burning ovens. There the goat will stay and be slowly cooked overnight. The women will lift it out of the oven just before Sunday luncheon. During the night, everyone attends church for the Liturgy of the Resurrection and at midnight, Papa Yannis will proclaim the Resurrection. This part of the service also differs from the service held elsewhere, since in Olympos the announcement is made in the women’s part of the church (the gynaikonitis in Greek) inside the church, rather than being made in the church courtyard, as is the habit elsewhere. In traditional Orthodox religious life, men and women occupy separate parts of the church and may even have separate entrances. The custom in Olympos, however, is a conscious reference to Mary Magdalene who was the first to see Jesus after His Resurrection.
On Easter Sunday, a second Resurrection liturgy takes place at noon, which is also something unique to Olympos. For the people of Olympos, this second liturgy is the most important. The girls of the village wear their traditional dresses and necklaces of gold coins (kolaina), as they stand in lines outside the church. After the liturgy, everyone takes their place in a queue to receive some of the Communion bread and loukoumades, a doughnut-like confection containing honey and cinnamon. Yet more firecrackers are let off. Ouzo, an alcoholic Greek drink flavoured with aniseed and similar to Italian sambuca, is distributed. The table is prepared for the Easter meal and the goat is taken out of the oven.
Easter Tuesday Litany
The traditional Easter in Olympos culminates on the Tuesday after Easter. The most important icons of the central church are removed and taken in procession round the village to visit every other church, where services are performed. To celebrate the Resurrection, the icons are adorned with scarves of a local pattern. The iconostasis, where the icons stand in church, lost its black embroidery on the day of the Resurrection and it is now time to celebrate.
In Olympos, these are four icons painted on wood, each of which weighs around twenty kilograms. The route is approximately eight to nine kilometres, most of it being uphill, downhill and off-road. Papa Yannis, who is now over eighty years old, leads the procession. He makes it look very easy. I asked him to stop at one point when he did not appear to be very well, but he continued. The first major stop, lasting a couple of hours, occurs at the village cemetery, where Papa Yiannis performs an individual memorial service at each grave.
The relatives of the deceased have pieces of confectionary, such as chocolate, candy or local delicacies, that they offer to anyone attending. The correct response on being offered this is not ‘Thank you’, but ‘Theos s’horeston’ (‘May God forgive him’). A memorial service is also held at the ossuary in the cemetery. Anybody with relatives whose bones lie in the ossuary gives their names to Papa Yiannis beforehand.
The litany continues and the second stop is at a spring where the participants can obtain water. Papa Yiannis also dips a bunch of basil in the water and sprinkles it in blessing over those present. He also wets a corner of the icon of the Virgin Mary, to refresh her during the tiring litany. The procession continues. Anybody bearing one of the icons who is fatigued is relieved by somebody else. The procession even attracts tourists, who regularly attend the ceremony and are so familiar with the route that they point it out to anybody who forgets.
Young ladies wear their colourful traditional costume (sakofoustano), which is set off by a necklace of golden coins. Such dress is only worn by younger, unmarried women. It is made by the girl’s family and is not cheap. More than three generations may have worked on each dress, as each generation must maintain or, preferably, improve the costume, before passing it on to the next generation. These dresses, along with the jewellery that goes with them, indicate the financial status of the family. I was told by one girl that she owns 37 such dresses.
After marriage, the women will wear their other costume, whose chief colour is black. This is the kava’e (which comes from the word kavathe, although the ‘th’ is silent in the local dialect). As the woman ages, the costume becomes gradually less ornate. The kava’e of women over a certain age is almost completely black.
The litany procession returns to the village via a very steep slope, from which there is a beautiful view far out to sea. The procession returns to the central square, where the icons are placed in a particular spot, in readiness for the next step of the ceremony.
All unmarried girls stand clothed in traditional dress in front of the steps of the church, while an auction takes place, as families make bids for the privilege of carrying an icon back into the church, where it is put back in its place in the iconostasis. Finally, the families who have made the highest bid and won the auction will be entertained to dinner, which will be offered by the church and served in the women’s section (gynaikonitis) of the church. This, too, is a tradition that I have never met in any other place in Greece. Never have I ever seen anyone eating at a table inside a church for any reason whatsoever.
AUGUST
The Transfiguration of the Saviour
This Transfiguration of the Saviour, a feast smaller in scale than others, takes place on 6 August in a beautiful, but diminutive church in Olympos that hangs on a cliff to the west of the village and has a stunning view, particularly at sunset, over the village to the sea beyond. Most of the village windmills stand in the western part of Olympos and can be seen from the church. As for the church itself, it is privately owned and one of the reputedly 300 churches of Olympos. This large number is accounted for by the fact that most families own a private church and Olympos is justly famous for its churches.
To reach the church, one takes the road out of the village towards the west, before turning to the right up a steep road that leads to the church. The feast is attended by village women dressed in traditional costumes. The morning liturgy starts at 8 a.m. and ends between 10 and 11. During the liturgy, Papa Yannis blesses bread made by local women, who use sourdough and add spices, such as cumin, anise, mastic, sesame or cloves.
After the liturgy and the blessing, are finished, the congregation gathers around to praise the icon of the church, to give Papa Yannis their good wishes, to obtain his blessing and to receive their sweetmeats. These consist of communion bread and loukoumades. They also include watermelon and ouzo.
It is now the time to catch up on news and gossip, as by now most visitors to Olympos have arrived. These come during August and, since the Feast of the Transfiguration is held in early August, most visitors have been around for only a few days and naturally want to catch up with old friends and relatives.
The Dormition of the Virgin
The Dormition of the Virgin is celebrated on 15 August throughout Greece. The weather is always beautiful and it is the favourite time for Greeks to take their annual holidays. It is therefore naturally a very important date for Olympos, particularly since the main church of the village is dedicated to the Virgin.
The girls of Olympos prepare themselves for the big day. Their sisters and mothers dress them in their colourful traditional dress and place necklaces of gold around their necks. The village, especially the main square where the church is located, is packed with tourists. As soon as the morning liturgy ends, the girls, now dressed in their traditional costumes, go through the narrow village streets to the church to pay their respects to the Virgin, convey their good wishes to their relatives and friends and, of course, to show off their finery.
The older women enjoy some local gossip. In contrast to the situation in the winter months, Olympos now seethes with life during August. Natives of Olympos or those who claim descent from the village and now live on Rhodes or in the Piraeus in Athens or further afield, in the USA or Australia, gather on the island at this time. There are tourists, too, who watch the proceedings and want to blend in so they buy accessories or items of local clothing to wear. Everything looks striking, new and fresh.
After the liturgy is over, people move towards the spot where the table is set to feed anyone who cares to sit down. Tourists are usually too shy to do this, so most of the people at the table are locals. Sometimes, if the weather allows, the table is set up outside, on the main square. Usually, however, the table stands in the megaron (church hall).
A second festival, the night after…
On 15 August, the day of the Dormition, Olympos is extremely full. In the evening, a dance is held, which is very crowded, too. And so the locals hold a more private celebration the day after. If you want to attend this, it helps to have been to Olympos several times already, so that the locals know you and understand why you are here.
The inhabitants of Olympos are certainly hospitable and certainly do not mind outsiders watching them dance, although they would prefer to dance with each other only. This initially seemed odd to me, but I came to see that, in contrast to celebrations in other areas, the festivities of the people of Olympos are mingled with melancholy and sadness. Sometimes one spots somebody in tears because something has been sung about the good old days or some relative, now deceased. Besides this, friends or members of a family do not get many opportunities to see each other, since many live so far away and the presence of a stranger who does not belong might spoil the atmosphere.
Lastly, at such gatherings, the people of Olympos maintain their old traditions, which means that men may dance with their sisters, other female relatives, their fiancés or wives, which means that they normally cannot dance with their girlfriends. Here the line of dancers consists of groups of female relatives led by a male relative. At the end of each round, the last group in the line moves to the front and the dance begins again, once more led by a man. This is confusing even for Greeks, who are familiar with folk dances, let alone for a tourist.
The celebration takes place in the central square (the selai), if the weather allows. The event is usually hosted by the Parthenon Café, which supplies the food and drink, including much whisky, which is omnipresent at all festivals at Olympos. Village women offer sweetmeats consisting of monkey nuts and sweets among other items, which they hold in large baskets. Women and girls in traditional dress and conspicuous in their gold necklaces appear.
As is the case with all feasts and festivals at Olympos, the dancing continues until morning the next day. The pace is slow, however. The feast starts with table songs (tis tavlas), before moving on to mantinades (improvised songs). During the mantinades, the dancing begins, albeit at a slow tempo, before building up to an accelerating rhythm that continues till the dawn, culminating in the energetic dance known as the pano horos.
A traditional engagement
If you happen to be in Olympos during August, you might be lucky enough to see a traditional engagement take place. Engagements, weddings, and christenings take place after the Dormition of the Virgin, because, as in the rest of Greece, the period before 15 August is a time of fasting during which such events may not take place.
Traditional Engagements are not frequent. They require much preparation, which starts at least a fortnight before the event itself. The family involved offers sweetmeats to the rest of the village. Most of those who happen to be in the village are invited to the engagement and, since engagements usually occur in the latter part of August, the village is fairly full.
The bride-to-be prepares herself at home, a process that takes several hours, as she has to don the traditional sakofoustano, which consists of three layers of clothing, many accessories, a scarf and much jewellery. In this, she is helped by her relatives. The girls who are involved in the procedure seem particularly picky about getting the scarf right and tying and retying it many times, although I did not see any difference between one effort and another.
When the bride is ready, she moves to the threshold of her house to await the groom, which today is an obvious moment for selfies. Music plays in the yard of the house and the sweetmeats on offer are delicious, particularly those made from sesame and honey. After a short period, the groom appears, accompanied by instrumentalists and a crowd of onlookers and well-wishers. He holds a bouquet for the bride.
The local priest conducts the ceremony in the house of the bride. The couple exchange rings and short speeches are made by all the more important guests and, like all such Olympiot customs, the event is charged with emotion.
The couple are accompanied by instrumentalists to the spot where the reception is to be held. The koumbaros (roughly equivalent to best man) or koumbara, if female, leads the engagement procession, holding an icon, as onlookers gather to watch. The reception may take place in the megaron of the church and involves much food, drink and dance. After a while, sometimes the bride-to-be changes into contemporary clothes, which are more comfortable.
The celebration that I happened to see differed from others I have described here. Instead of following the usual order that informs other rituals held at Olympos, it involved more music, some of which was not even Karpathiot, and more dancing than other rituals. I was told that this was because the bride came from another village on Karpathos.
A traditional wedding
The dowry
Two days or so before the wedding, the dowry is moved from the house of the groom to that of the bride, where the couple will live. In contrast to most of the rest of Greece, Olympos is a matrilocal community and tradition dictates that the couple resides in the house of the bride’s family.
Ownership is taken very seriously in Olympos, since, in addition to money, inheritance in the form of property is also involved. This can consist of real estate, in the form perhaps of the property built in the traditional architectural style of Olympos, of traditional clothing and of jewellery, all of which may be of significant monetary value. The dowry is, however, intended to be passed down through the generations.
This therefore means that great care is expended on how to distribute this fortune. Traditionally, all of the fortune is inherited by the firstborn female (the kanakarā), leaving other siblings nothing. Thus the inheritance is never divided and the female involved is tied to Karpathos, as she has to oversee and maintain her inheritance. Girls inherit since men usually migrate from the island. Should the family have more than one girl, the younger female sibling either marries and leaves the island or remains unmarried and helps their elder sisters. Things, however, are slowly changing. Some families prefer to distribute the family fortune equally among their children.
As with all other such events in Olympos, the event starts with traditional music, played on drum, lyra and bagpipes, at both the groom’s home and the bride’s, accompanied by mantinades in praise of both families. The guests arrive and are offered sweetmeats made by the family.
The guests admire the dowry and, when all have arrived, preparations are made to transport the dowry to the bride’s house. The women who will do this are dressed in traditional costumes. Each chooses an object and carries it held above the head. They process through the village so that all can admire the dowry as it is carried by. The procession stops briefly in the central square (the Selai) for some music and singing.
When I attended the ceremony, the dowry was to be transported to Diafani, one of the harbours of the island and the port of Olympos. In this case, the dowry was loaded onto trucks in the village parking lot and taken to Diafani. When the dowry reached Diafani, it was treated in the same way, being processed through the village to the place where the reception was to be held and then placed on display.
The wedding day
Because traditional weddings at Olympos require much preparation, they are rare and I was lucky to witness one. Indeed, I was told that there had not been any for some eight or nine years. As is the case with an engagement, the bride prepares herself at home, which takes several hours. Once more, the scarf is put on and taken off many times. The other members of the party wear the costume traditional for unmarried girls, the sakofoustano. They have so many sets of this costume, however, that they can wear a new one for every wedding.
The groom prepares himself at his home. Much drinking with friends and family is involved. In the houses of both bride and groom, there is a lot of music, not all of it happy, and there are tears and powerful emotions, as with all rituals in Olympos. When the bride is ready, she goes to the room where the men are present. They sing mantinades in praise this time of members of the family, living and deceased. The musicians escort the groom to the church and then leave, to pick up the bride.
Since the wedding that I happened to witness involved a groom from Olympos and a bride from Diafani, two priests, one from each village, performed the ceremony. The couple then returned to the marital home, where they placed wreaths on the iconostasis of the house, before going to the reception, which they entered after all the guests had been seated.
