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Leonidas Roars -This is Αποκριά!

If success can be measured by smiles and Kefi, then surely the Dance held this weekend by the Pallaconian Brotherhood – Leonidas was an outstanding and superb example of Success.

The word Αποκριά or Απόκρεω (Apokria) literally means ‘without meat’ and the word carnival comes from the Latin ‘carnem levare’ meaning ‘without meat’. So what we are doing within this merriment today is preparing to fast during the Lent which follows, but the origins of this revelry can be traced in Greek paganism.

Apokries last for three weeks prior to Lent and covers twenty-two days and three Sundays.

A picture tells a thousand words

Μια εικόνα λέει χίλιες λέξεις

In Athens people have masquerade parties and the goal is to dress up so as not to be recognised. People wander the streets dressed in masquerade garb, hitting strangers on the head with a club (naturally only a plastic club). Friends get together and knock on other friends’ doors in dress-up and in this case as well as at a party one must guess who is hiding behind the dress-up and the mask.