Danu Enterprises

Thanks for requesting more information regarding our trip to visit Greece during Carnival. I would like you to know a bit more about the history of this trip.

I have been organizing and leading study tours to Greece since 1975. The early trips were sponsored by Cabrillo College, and later Monterey Peninsula College for course credit. Although I resigned from full-time teaching in 1985, the educational component of this trip, and all the others that we offer, continues.

On one of my of tours to Greece, I visited the Folklore Museum in Athens, Tucked away in the corner on the second floor, was an exhibit of the Carnival costumes from certain small towns in Greece. By far the most intriguing were the huge, hairy tabards, girdled with a massive number of copper cow bells from the island of Skyros. The mask was innocuous in comparison --a simple baby goat pelt with small round eye holes. I resolved to find out more about the island and this, seemingly ancient festival.

My first two trips to Skyros were as first a participant, and then the following year as an Instructor for the Skyros Center at Atsitsa (beach), a kind of camp for adults. During my free time I explored the main town,called Chorio, a charming fishing village, noted for preserving its folk arts: coppersmithing, wood carving, and ceramics. While sitting in a small cafe, I noticed a book for sale titled “Goat Dances of Skyros.” It was crudely written and the black and white photos lacked any artistry, but they conveyed enough information to give a clue as to the unique character of this local festivity.

A subsequent visit to the town’s small but thorough museum, created and maintained by a wealthy local family, featured many costumes and masks from the Apro Teria, but very little written information. I managed to have a meeting with the matriarch of the family, who verified my suspicions that the festival was rooted in the worship of the god Dionysus, and could date back to as late as the 7th century BC.

On a subsequent tour titled “Greece off the Beaten Path,” I brought a group to the island and continued finding out as much as possible from local people about this ritual. Like many small islands, Skyros lost many of its young people to Athens, who immigrated to find better paying jobs and more excitiment than they would encounter in life on a small island. I was told that no matter where they lived, Skyrians would return for this particular ritual--so important was it in their lives.

I found that one of the reasons Skyros has retained its customs, arts and traditions, is because historically it has been isolated, and still was more difficult to get to than its more famous neighbors, Skopelos and Skiathos, with their famous beaches and night life.

Imagine my surprise five years later, when, standing in Saint Marks Square during the Carnevale celebrations for one of our on-going Carnevale in Venice tours, a group of dancers wearing shaggy goat-hair tabards and sporting large copper bells and goat masks appeared and performed a rugged folk-dance. I discovered they were from the island of Sardinia, an area that also had preserved ancient customs by being geographically isolated, and also an island of cattle and goat herders. The similarities were stunning.

I became involved in researching the history of Carnevale, tracing it from Italy, back to its origins in the worship of Dionysus and Pan in ancient Greece. I did manage to attend the rustic Carnevale in Sardinia three times, but never made it back to Skyros to see what might be an excellent example of the old Dionysian rites.

Besides all of my serious talk about origins and old revels, I admit to loving a good party, and no group of people I have visited anywhere in the world know how to express the joy of life in dance and music as much as the Greeks. Here is your chance to join them, in an experience that will be truly unique. We will be in Skyros town long enough for you to develop some relationships with local people and get a window into their way of life, and the simple beauty of their exquisite village. I hope you will join me on a trip that I am thrilled to (finally) be offering.

On the craggy, geographically isolated Greek island of Skyros, local people enact a ritual honoring a god they no longer know. Inhabited since ancient times by shepherds, Skyrians worshipped the god Pan, protecter of shepards, as well as numerous water nymphs who guarded and preserved the springs and wells.

Still an island of goat herders, in early spring when the kids are born, Skyrians return to their family home to celebrate the Aproteria. The main characters in the ritual performance wear goat skin masks, shaggy shirts, and dozens of goat bells around their waists. Three performers form the basis of many groups of dancers, who dance and sing their way from the town square to the acropolis,
site of the former temple of Dionysus, now the location of a Greek Orthodox church.

The dancers represent an old man or goat-herder, a woman who is his consort, and a “foreigner.” Like the ancient Greek performers, they are all men, although in recent years women have demanded the right to be represented as well. The three sing melancholy songs related to death and rebirth, sacrifice, and resurrection.

There are also other performers, rustic sailors, fishermen and craftsmen, who haul a boat up from the sea to the town square. Creating an improvised stage, they perform raucous skits that parody and
satirize the events that occurred the previous year in the village. Nor is anyone exempt from the ridicule of the local poets, who ride donkeys about the village, stopping in front of cafes and public places, to recite or sing witty burlesques.

The townsfolk, who participate en mass, spend the entire three weeks drinking copious amounts of wine. There is much dancing and singing, and all treat the performers to endless rounds of ouzo and retsina in the cafes. The Greek Orthodox church had tried in the past to repress the celebration, but finally gave up, and absorbed it into their Lenten calendar. Aside from the Carnevale ritual, Skyros is famed for preserving its ancient customs with little interference from the outside world as well as a refuge for traditional arts and crafts. Collectors around the world support its wood carvers, painters, and ceramicists.

The event is so important, Skyrians who have immigrated to Athens and other areas return for the annual event, and local people open their trunks and wear the beautifully embroidered folk costumes that are family heirlooms. The photographic possibilities are endless.

On the neighboring island of Skopelos Carnival is also a big event, whose spirit can be traced back in antiquity. The celebrations last for 12 days and villagers old and young, dress in costumes, teasing and visiting each other, and end up in tavernas until dawn. During the entire period, there is a spirit of joy, with dances, food, drinking, parties, parades, and costumes.