“Apokries,” or the Greek carnival season is upon us here on Crete. From Ierapartra to Chania in the far west of the island, and throughout Greece, everyone is celebrating the three-week-long spectacle.
Apokries, which culminates on March 2nd, the weekend before “Kathara Deftera,” or Clean Monday, is all about “abstention from meat” because of the period of Great Lent, or “Sarakosti,” when no meat whatsoever is consumed for 40 days before the great feast of Easter.
Streets and squares all over Crete island will soon be filled with colorful confetti, hats, masks, capes and other costumes for carnival. And the music of the season will add rhythm for dancing harlequins and clowns will be seen celebrating with the crowds in Heraklion, Rethymno, and elsewhere.
Between Friday, February 28 and Sunday, March 1, well-known musical artists, among them Glykeria, Eleni Tsaligopoulou and Melina Kana, will give concerts under the Acropolis Hill in Athens. Here on Crete, next week is Cheese Week, sometimes called “White Week” when people usually only eat dairy products and eggs.
Carnival festivities are being held in Arkalochori, Chania, Rethymno (since 1914), Souda, Heraklion, Paleochora, Kalyves, and Kastelli / Kissamos and other locations peaking Saturday 29 February & Sunday 1st March 2020.
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