Which customs are revived on Halloween.
“These days have it
these weeks
for the children to dance
that mothers may rejoice”
(Traditional Cycladic Carnival)
From the beginning of the triodion until the last Sunday of Halloween, all of Greece revives customs that date back thousands of years and have their roots in pagan rituals, perhaps even older than Greek culture. The customs that reach our days stem from the Bacchic festivals and the events of preparation for the rebirth of nature. Most customs are revived on the last Sunday of Halloween with the lighting of large bonfires in squares and neighborhoods to ward off evil spirits. In Kastoria they are called “boubounes” and in Kozani they are called “lanuses”, around which they set up a feast with dancing. In many places with carnivals, the burning of Carnival is a tradition, while in Xanthi it is called the “Burning of the Tzaros”. Halloween masks, or mutsounes, as they are called in various regions, are the essential accessory of every Halloween costume. Men dressed in men’s and women’s traditional costumes, pour into the streets with dances and songs. Such customs are the “Yanissari and the Boules”, to the sounds of the zourna and the dhowli in Naoussa, as well as the “Old Man”, dressed with bells, the “Korela” with her scarf and the “Fragos” in Skyros. In Nigrita, Serres and Drama, young people dress up as “Bamboogeyman” and go from house to house ringing their bells to ward off evil.
In other places, customs are revived with carnival weddings, theatrical weddings, such as the “Koutroulis the Wedding” in Methoni or with “mismatched” couples, which cause laughter and “teasing” of those who participate. This is followed, of course, by the traditional feast. A different carnival wedding “out of a fairy tale” is the “Venetian Wedding in Tzante” which is revived in Zakynthos and has its roots in the period of Venetian rule. But if you find yourself in Galaxidi on Clean Monday, then get ready for the “Aleuromoutzouromata”. “Young people” of all ages, “pouring” into the streets and throwing flour, fumos and cardboard at each other, bidding farewell to the season of wild revelry and welcoming spring.
