Celebrating Carnival

It is this time of the year again, when our spirits are set loose, giving us the freedom to dream, to express ourselves and to help us find out who we really are and what we really want to be. There is no other time like the Carnival. And there is no psychologist or self-help guru who will deny the importance of pretending, of make believe, of acting, for the release of the psyche.

As a child I was split between the urge to join in the celebrations and the restrictions imposed by my traditionalist religious family. I was petrified by the thought of joining in, and I have yet to truly reconcile myself with Carnival, its meaning and practice, although I have learned to allow the kids the joy of dressing up and having fun.
To this day or even more in our days, zealots deny the Carnival as a remnant of ancient pagan religious practices. If we look into Linguistics, Carnival is derived from the Latin and to Christians it indicates the beginning of the meat-free period before Easter (Lent), an opportunity to purify our bodies and souls in order to accept the joyful message of the Resurrection.

As a religious festival, Carnival goes even deeper in time, to the Dionysia, a Greek festival in honor of Dionysus, son of Zeus, god of release of the soul through dance, enacting, and wine.


Despite the restrictions imposed, the festivity survived, masquerading itself, as most of the ancient lore, and reached us some thousand years after the legal institution of Christianity as state religion in the Eastern Roman Empire.

In many Greek villages traditions are strong to this day. No wonder, since the word pagan indicates country folk who clang onto their traditions and refused to change them. They dance to the sound of divine pipe music and they move around making the bells produce wonderful mountainous sounds.

The "old woman", the Crone, is one of the most important figures of a traditional village Carnival, and a favorite among boys.

In times of trial and hardship, Carnivals came handy. During the 400 year Turkish occupation, the Greeks would dress up and communicate with each other, organising insurrections and safeguarding their identity. It is at the time that Carnival really got its Christian tint, as a means of distinguishing the Christian-Greek from the Muslim-Turk.

The Carnival has inspired important painters, such as Nicholaos Gyzis (1842-1901) who painted this "Carnival in Athens". Look at the naughty boy to the right, frightening the young woman in the white head scarf.

In the cities children dress up in modern costumes of current heroes. Spidermen and Zoros are a common sight these days. Girls dress up as princesses and fairies.

D is getting dressed this year as Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean.

So, come on, join the fun. Whether you will be keeping the Lent, fasting or not, do something to allow yourself to taste what is beyond the everyday and the ordinary.
Dress up, be naughty, sing and dance and be child like.

This is Carnival!