Cosmo Sapiens

  By Marina Siskos The feeling is ignited only to the lucky ones that have experienced at least one Dekapentavgousto in Greece. The sense of sacredness is diffuse in every corner of the country, heralding the end of summer, in the characteristic, mild breeze of late August. Awakenings, traditions, pilgrimages to historic monasteries throughout the country, offers to the Virgin Mary and a 15-day period of Lent, commonly honour the Dormition of Mary. Some places have tied their name to the uniqueness or the longevity of their celebration of the Dormition of Mary.  Inside the Byzantine church of Panayia Kosmosotira, Ferai, Evros Panayia of Kosmosoteira, Ferai, Evros: Liturgy at the Trinational Point of Evros Constructed on the strategically unique position atop a hill trespassing via Egnatia, close to Evros river, the church of Kosmosoteira, in the traditional Ferai settlement (district of Thrace), is an outstanding monument of the mid-Byzantine period. The monastery has been fou...

  By: Marina Siskos Published in the Greek Herald  https://greekherald.com.au/culture/history/carnivalesque-customs-of-thrace-the-timeless-value-of-satire-practiced-through-rituals/?fbclid=IwAR383O4Bg0MzPE2Pm8_FHXAupa8cPpwKjAE8PHhNAUiAAHw3k8mFNlyKDhw Carnival customs are observed on the first Sunday of Christian Orthodox fasting, The Tyrian Sunday, alongside most significant Thracian customs Thrace is Dionysus’s birthplace. Dionysus, or Bacchus, was the god of the grape-harvesting, winemaking, vegetation and fertility. Dionysus was the son of Semeli and Zeus (Moutsopoulos, 2016). Thracian festivities celebrated to this day are sharply reminiscent of Dionysus’s characteristic shenanigans (Moutsopoulos, 2016). The customs known as  Kopek   Mpehis  and the  Monks , as described in narrative skillfulness by the master of  ethnographia , Georges Vizeynos, date back to the antiquity. Representations of the carnivalesque customs and practiced are preserved wi...