ΟΛΥΜΠΟΣ ΚΑΡΠΑΘΟΥ Επέτειος 7ης Μαρτίου 2023-Μουσειο Βασίλη Χατζηβασίλη

[martinaakervik]

My hearing is fading and my Greek is restricted to just ten words or so like: parakalo, puh ine, endaxi and efkaristo poli. Yet I have looked a bit at your videos and enjoyed it. (Not understanding more than feeling the atmosphere.)

To me Karpathos is very exotic. It reminds me of the summer I lived I Pigadia. (1998. I first fell in love with the island on a vacation in 1997. Went home to Norway and saved money all winter to be able to spend 5 months or so on the island the year after. This in my early 20s.)

I read about Greek philosophers, Greek mythology on my own without schooling or education about it, not much on internet either then. (Stumbling like a confused young person. Probably forming my own idéas.)

Anyhow yesterday I read a archeological science paper about Karpathos in the late Bronze Age. It claimed the island wasn’t completely adopted to either Minoan or Mycenaeans culture rather a hybrid between those and its local culture that was more like farming than urban life.

This made me remember when I was living on the island. That it was said that Olympos had very old traditions. As far as I know Olympos town is from 700–800 ad. (That’s of course much later than the Bronze Age. Yet, quite old and the traditions could be older than the town for all I know.)

Do we know how old the costumes and the traditions/festivals is? I would guess they are rooted in Christianity, but maybe intertwined with even older traditions? I really don’t know. I’m a curious person by nature, 😅 ..sorry for long comment in probably bad English.