Greece Adds 10 More Traditions to Its Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Greek Ministry of Culture has listed ten new cultural expressions in the national inventory for Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Traditional dances, local carnival events, and carols and feasts are among the new entries that have been approved after examination by the competent committee.

According to the UNESCO convention for its safeguarding, intangible cultural heritage is “the culture of ordinary people, the culture of everyday life: rituals, knowledge, practices, traditions that are often deeply rooted in time, and to this day still define our collective memory and identity, our individual and collective self-knowledge.”

Folk dances of Crete and traditional dressmaking

Two folk dances, both of which are local circular dances of Crete, are among the latest additions to the Greek National Inventory for Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The first of them is the so-called called Syrtos, which was developed in the 18th century by a local musician. Traditionally, Syrtos is danced only by men. Syrtos’s mixture with Hasapiko dance is the world-famous Syrtaki, also known as the Zorba dance.

The second one is the fast and lively Maleviziotis, local to the area of Malevizio, near Heraklion. The dynamic dance is danced by men and women and has become very popular across Greece and the diaspora.

The art of traditional dressmaking by Nicolaos Plakidas, in Aetolia-Acarnania, central Greece, makes up an entirely separate new entry to the National Inventory.

Carnival customs from across Greece

Three different carnival customs -from the island of Lesvos, from Epirus, and from Thrace- have made the list of 2023’s new entries to the Greek National Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory.

The Carnival celebrations at Mesopotamos, on Lesvos island, reflects memories from Asia Minor homelands. Participants hang bells from their belts, blacken their faces with coal and oil and wear traditional handmade hats or scarves.

The city of Arta, Epirus, northwestern Greece, is home to the Bantidoi Carnival custom, which sees men in groups of ten to fifteen flock to the streets, singing and teasing bystanders.

Meanwhile in the village of Protoklisi, in the municipality of Soufli, Thrace, northeastern Greece, locals on Clean Monday dress up as a satyrical troupe and dance in the streets, per the local Bey custom.

Christmas, New Year, and Easter Customs

On the night of Christmas Eve, single young men sing the carols at Kryonero in Kalampaki, Drama, eastern Thrace.

Also in the area of Drama, between 6-8 January, men in Kali Vrisi, Municipality of Prosotsani, dress as goat-faced Babougera trolls for the omonymous New Year custom of Pagan origins.

At the peak of the event on January 8, the Babougera storm in to steal the bride of a mock Dionysian marriage, where the bride is yet another disguised man of the village.

The Lament of the Virgin Mary, another new entry to the Greek National Inventory for Intangible Cultural Heritage, are carols sung in Kopani Dodonis, Epirus, eastern Greece, on Good Friday.

Last but not least, St Peter’s Feast in Spata, region of Attica, sees villagers of all ages volunteer to cook enormous quantities of beef stew for the entire community and the faithful, as an offer to the saints in return for their protection and a good harvest.