1st of March and Ash Monday celebration in Greece

The ancient Greeks used to celebrate the beginning of the most beautiful season of the year, the spring!
In modern Greece there are many habits related with the beginning of the spring. Their aim is to expel the winter, because it is related to “evil”.
The first day of March the kids use to make bracelets from white and red cotton thread, which is called “martis”, to beware of the intense sunlight. These bracelets use to keep with them till the morning of the Easter Sunday. Then, they use to hang them on a rose tree and they are waiting to see the first swallow which is the spring message.

Clean Monday, Kathari Theftera(Greek: Καθαρή Δευτέρα), is the Monday that begins the season of Great Lent in Eastern Orthodox Churches, which lasts forty days because of the forty days Jesus spent fasting the desert .
It is also known as Pure Monday, Ash Monday or Monday of Lent.
It is called “Clean Monday” because Christians are called upon to begin the holy season with “clean hearts and good intentions.” and it’s actually a preparation for the big celebration of the Easter.
Clean Monday is a public holiday in Greece, a day when families go to the countryside and beaches for picnics and kite-flying.
All Greeks are enjoying the traditional food of the day, including lagana, special bread that is eaten only on this day, prawns and octopus, cabbage leaves stuffed with rise, fish roe salad and halva with semolina.
( The Greek team)

Andalucia, Spanish team's home place

Andalusia

View more presentations from Helen Grigoriadou.

(By the Spanish team)

About Music and Literature of Cyprus

The traditional folk music of Cyprus has many common elements with Greek mainland and island folk music, including dances like the sousta, syrtos, zeibekikos, tatsia, and the kartsilamas.
• The instruments commonly associated with Cyprus folk music are the violin ["fkiolin"], the lute ["laouto"], the accordion, and the Cyprus flute "pithkiavlin". There is also a form of musical poetry known as "chattista", which is often performed at traditional feasts and celebrations.
• Literary production of the antiquity includes the Cypria, an epic poem probably composed in the later seventh century BC and attributed to Stasinus. The Cypria is one of the very first specimens of Greek and European poetry.
• The Cypriot Zeno of Citium was the founder of the Stoic philosophy.
• Epic poetry, notably the "acritic songs", flourished during Middle Ages.
• Two chronicles, one written by Leontios Machairas and the other by Voustronios, refer to the period under French domination (15th century).

• Modern literary figures from Cyprus include the poet and writer Kostas Montis, poet Kyriakos Charalambides, poet Michalis Pasardis, writer Nicos Nicolaides, Stylianos Atteshlis, Altheides and also Demetris Th. Gotsis. Dimitris Lipertis and Vasilis Michaelides are folk poets who wrote poems mainly in the Cypriot-Greek dialect.
• The majority of the play Othello by William Shakespeare is set on the island of Cyprus. Cyprus also figures in religious literature, most notably in Acts of the Apostles, according to which the Apostles Barnabas and Paul preached on the island.
The team from Cyprus

Lime tree and Mythology

Lime And Mythology

View more presentations from Helen Grigoriadou.

(By the Czech team)

Sierra Luna, Spanish team's school at Los Barrios

Sierra Luna

View more presentations from Helen Grigoriadou.

Welcome to Hellas or Greece

Greece, or for us Hellas, is a small country of south Europe, with population of 10 millions people. We call ourselves Hellenes, using our ancient name, not Greeks! Athens is the capital of Greece, a very historic city, the birthplace of Democracy (= the power of the people) and Drama Theater.
Athens is famous for her Acropolis and the temple of Parthenon.
Another big and historic city of North Greek is Thessalonica, the capital of Macedonia’s area, which is named after Alexander’s sister name. Hellas is also the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
On 25th of March we celebrate our Independence Day: on 25th of March in 1821, the Greeks have started their revolution for Liberty and Independence against the Ottomans. The Greek Revolution has inspired the great French painter E. Delacroix.
In Greece there are many unique islands, such as Crete, Rhodes, Chios, Mykonos and Santorini, ideal destinations for summer vacation.

When in Greece
In Greece a plethora of traditional and healthy dishes wait to please your appetite! If you favor meat, try “souvlaki” (made from pork or chicken meat) and gyros with pita bread or traditionally cooked lamp. Vegetarians have a choice of stuffed tomatoes and verity of cooked vegetables with tomatoes souse.
Greece, surrounded by the sea, offers a variety of sea food options: fishes, shrimps and octopus
(By Orestis and Anastasia)

College Dorval: French team's school

Teratsia or carob tree: by the team from Cyprus

Teratsia

View more presentations from Helen Grigoriadou.

A Carob Museum in Cyprus

Anogyra is a picturesque village situated on the Southern slopes of the Troodos massif, overlooking the bay of Pissouri, just a few kilometers off the Limassol- Pafos highway. For centuries this village is surrounded by carob orchards and in the past, carobs were a major source of income for the community.
Traditionally, carob processing was an important activity and the village is best known for its unique carob based all natural products. One such traditional product is pastelli, made by selected carobs high in sugar content using a unique, fairly hard and complex process.
The Carob Museum, “ Mavros Chrysos” (Black Gold) Museum is located in a renovated family-owned house, in the heart of the village and attracts visitors all year round, presenting in a clear manner, using all the traditional utensils and supported by visual aids, the process for making carob syrup and pastelli products.
• The Museum also portrays the story of Cyprus carobs, their nutritional value and the owners are keen to suggest alternative uses of the carob fruit, especially as a substitute to cocoa and sugar based sweets.
• The Museum is open for visits daily from 8.00am to 7.00pm.
The factory in fact, this is no more than a small workshop, which adheres to traditional methods and processes but has additionally been upgraded in order to satisfy the highest hygienic standards. The workshop is approved (by the local authorities) as a food processing unit and the company is currently in the process of obtaining a HACCP certification.
The factory produces carob syrup and pastelli products but also other traditional carob sweets are seasonally available, all on display and for sale at the premises. Carob fruit comes mainly from the family's own carob orchards supplemented by selective purchases from local farmers.
For an experience in Cypriot traditional gastronomy, Mavros Chrysos of Anogyra is certainly a place to visit.
(The Cypriot Team)
http://www.cyprusfoodndrinks.com/cgibin/hweb?V=ohcompany&_VCATEGORY=501004

Rowan recipes, jam and juice, by the Polish team

Carob tree: Cypriot team's favorite tree

Carob Tree

View more presentations from Helen Grigoriadou.