Carnival events in Chios

The Carnival is a category of religious festivals that have all the characteristics of festivals (volunteer work, food, drink, song, dance, etc.) but which are also accompanied by disguises, subversion, satire, athyrostomies and profanities, pagan atmosphere and phallic symbols.

Some of them carnival events of Chios It is AgasThe Show and procession of the Dead.

Agas

The custom of Aga takes place every year on Shrove Monday at Mastic villages (Olympus, Mesta, Elata and Lythi) and has its roots in the Ottoman Empire, when the Turkish Administration was constantly dissatisfied, demanding unbearable taxes from the villagers. Since then, the event of the representation of Aga was created, which is as follows:

One of the villagers - who is dynamic, a countryman, eloquent and knows people and situations - gets dressed Turkish Agas and sits on a podium. Beside him stands the vizier of Aga and the secretary. So on Shrove Monday, the square is full of people sitting down to eat or drink and have fun. Agas fishes "victims" either by those sitting or by passers-by. Agas accuses them of seemingly funny reasons, many times the jokes hide some hints of real ones, but such is the spirit of the day (joy, self-sarcasm and mockery of everything) that everyone pays the fine for it and through laughter and jokes happy.

Show

The custom of Mostra has deep roots in the Middle Ages, when pirates plundered the Aegean Sea. Legend has it that on a Sunday in Turin, pirates came to the neighboring shores and the Thymianousses confronted them, defeated them and hanged them - that is they showed them - in the village square. The following year, in order not to forget the achievement, they made the representation of the event and thus Mostra was born.

The representation of the battle in our days in Incense of Chios, is not only in the central square where people gather to see the spectacle, but scattered in the neighborhoods. Two groups are created Incense and Corsairs fighting, the little warriors with improvised wooden swords, the older ones with iron ones and the men with regular swords. Then the Carnival passes where the whole village participates and finally in the village square the dance takes place.

Dead

The procession of the Dead is done exclusively on Saint George of Sykous of Chios. They lay down the "dead" and put a log, a model of a male phallus, perpendicular to his limbs to show the lamentation of the deceased, while in turn the tombs, the banners, the inconsolable widow, the six undertakers holding the dead, the priests with the agiastoura and back crowds of people go to bury him. In a large hall, in the presence of the whole village, the funeral of the unfortunate dead takes place, while the priest next to him recites the will, three whole pages of purely sexual content.

"My heart's desire is like I'm going to die
hundreds of women in my grave above
to lie naked from front to back
go in and ride now and go and get up and pour… »

The main feature of the recitation of the will, in front of all the inhabitants (young, old, official, clergy, teachers) is that it is treated without any trace of puritanism and modesty and always in the spirit of Lent.