Greek folklore

According to Greek folklore, there was a ferocious vampire, known as "Vrykolakas" in Greek, that terrorized the residents of the Greek island of Mykonos in the 18th century. The Greek vampire is an undead, fearsome creature that becomes more powerful...

Vampires are some of the most famous creatures of the horror, and now romance, genres. The folklore of countless cultures around the world features some sort of vampire figure, and Greece's Vrykolakas is no different. The Greek vampire is an...

Mykonos bagpipe maestro Dimitris Koukas, aka "Mitsaras" passed in May 2021, taking a lifetime of Mykonian musical memory with him. Dimitris Koukas, played the Mykonian bagpipe—the tsabouna, for eight decades of his life. As a youngster, he first expressed interest in...

Although Greeks already feared Tuesday the 13th as a day marred by misfortune, the Anglo-Saxon culture that has heavily influenced the country through movies, television, and the internet in the past decades has brought Friday the 13th to the...

Siesta time is a sacred tradition of the Greeks, spanning back many centuries. Although modern life has had an impact on the short nap (taken in the early afternoon often after the midday meal), in the less touristy parts of...

The annual celebration of Saint George on April 23rd is one of the most important feasts in the Orthodox calendar. Almost all Greek households have someone called Georgios or Georgia among close or distant relatives or friends. However, this year,...

Holy Friday, or Good Friday, is a profoundly mournful day in Greece which commemorates the Passion of Christ with the traditional Epitaphios processions. A nationwide affair, it recalls the moments leading up to and including the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,...

Tsoureki (τσουρέκι in Greek) is the traditional sweet yeast bread Greeks make every year on Holy Thursday which is then consumed on Easter Sunday. Early in the morning on Holy Thursday throughout Greece, women start kneading the dough for the...

For Greeks, the annual roasted lamb, slowly turning on the spit on Easter Sunday, is not only a mouth-watering delicacy but also part of a centuries-old tradition written into the national psyche. The event brings together family and friends outdoors and...

The Mykonos bagpipe called Tsabouna played in for centuries lost recently one of its musical maestros with the passing of Dimitri Koukas.