THE Porto Heli Website

Sunday 13th May 2012

izzy — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:29:42 +0000

A view from the top - Porto Heli from the acropolis of Ancient Halieis

Two major events coming up this Sunday, never a dull moment in Porto Heli. Firstly it is Mother’s Day in Greece (see my previous post) so all the Nurseryschoolers have been working hard (and secretly) on a nice something for Mum and an informal cycle ride has been organised by the Parents Board of the Porto Heli Primary for that evening. Secondly, there’s been a call for volunteers to help tidy up Ancient Hallieis.

Sunday 13/05/2012

Calling all volunteers – the Porto Heli volunteer group will be cleaning up the ruins of Ancient Halieis (South East end of the Porto Heli bay). Rubbish collection, grass/weed strimming, shrub pruning and more will be going on so willing hands & strong backs are sure to be required, gardening tools & rubbish bags are optional extras and sun cream & water should not be forgotten if the weather continues to be warm like this.

Meet up at 09:00 in front of the ruins, on the far side of the bay.

Organisers – Municipal Community of Porto Heli (sorry, not sure of actual translation here)
Information – 6942 401200

May Day in Porto Heli

izzy — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:45:17 +0000

The FAROS (Lighthouse) Cultural Society of Porto Heli, the parents board of the Porto Heli Nursery School and the headmistress of the aforementioned organised a May Day ‘Flower Celebration’ in Porto Heli with a chuch service at the Panagitsa chapel beforehand and a sunset walk/bike ride afterwards.

From 10:00 the town quay was buzzing, tables and umbrellas were set up and the goodies were laid out. Cuttings, seedlings and plants plus bouquets of fresh or dried flowers were on offer from the FAROS and the local garden centres. Hand-made wreaths, paper flowers, herb-infused olive oil, local honey, candle holders & lavender sachets plus some great boats, sea scenes & other creations made out of driftwood and other beach findings were on sale. There were some amazing roses, plenty of seasonal herbs – including delicious basil, mint, rosemary & sage and a profusion of plants in flower available too. F.A.S.Ermionida were there with information booklets, photos of animals for adoption and a table of craft items including stenciled mirrors, decorated candles, painted doorstops/paperweights, pretty flower broaches and more.

The highlight of my day however was ‘Bellas Cupcakes – Homemade delicacies’. Her cupcake creations have to be tasted to be believed, they don’t just look good! Old favorites such as Lemon Frenzy and Chocolate Burn Out were snapped up by the local kids. Café Gourmand, Pistachio Gogo and, new flavour especially for the day, Sweet Pear, sold by platefuls. Luckily there were enough for me to get my hands on some.

The music for this video is Concerto No. 1 in E, ‘Spring’ – I:Allegro played by Itzhak Perlman from the album Vivaldi – The Four Seasons & Violin Concertos.

May Day celebrations were also organised by the Municipality of Ermionida, which took place at the Papoulia Chapel – I believe chairs, tables and music are provided and you take your own food & beverages, picnic under the trees and have a stroll around admiring/picking the wildflowers.

Ermionida has talent!

izzy — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:05:32 +0000

Ermionida has talent - 29/04/2012

On Sunday 29th April 2012 the FIRST EVER local talent show, “Ermionida Has Talent”, took place on the Koilada quayside. Youngsters up to 18 years old were called on to strut their stuff be it ballet, kung-fu, singing, dancing or playing music and it was excellent, almost two hours of great entertainment from a talented bunch of youngsters.

Proud parents, grandparents, relative and friends turned out in droves to support the local youth, providing enthusiastic moral support for all the acts (and fairly vocal moral support for their faves) and all the kids were given photos of their performance as keepsakes.

My video is just samples of the show, there were more acts but I didn’t manage to get everyone on film unfortunately. I’m hoping to get hold of a copy of the ‘official’ video for my archives though.

Thank you to the organisers, all the people who helped out and, of course, the kids – ERMIONIDA HAS TALENT !

May Day Celebrations 2012

izzy — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:27:20 +0000

Unfortunately I missed the ‘Festival of the Tulip’ held in Didima on the 22nd of April this year although, by all accounts, it was a good one. Not a bumper year for tulips though, as I found out when I went down the next day to get some new tulip photos and found not a one! This amazing tulip photo is from http://morguefile.com who have loads of great, free photographs for download. Still, Porto Heli is having a flower festival of a kind on May Day (next Tuesday) and I’m looking forward to it. The programme is as follows:

08:00 – Service at the Panagitsa chapel, Ververonda (on the themes of health & fruitfulness)
10:00 – Flower celebrations in the village centre – cupcakes, craft items, home-made produce & flowers (seeds, cuttings & plants) will be on sale and F.A.S.Ermionida will be participating too
18:30 – A sunset walk & bicycle ride along the Ververoda lake (Starting from the Porto Heli Nursery School), all are welcome

ORGANISED BY

The “FAROS” association of Porto Heli
The Parents board of the Porto Heli Nursery school
The headmistress of the Porto Heli Nursery school

Easter Sunday dance rehersals

izzy — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:26:55 +0000

I didn’t video the actual performance, my camera isn’t up to it, but I attended most of the rehersals and put together a slideshow for you. The coaches were dedicated & the kids very hardworking, they rehersed for over a week and performed really well. After the show I (well, one of my kids) was congratulated by a complete stranger who had only just realised that they were local kids and not a professional dance troupe! She was overwhelmed at how good they were and thanked us effusively, we’d made her Easter! Excellent work by both coaches and kids, well done.

The song is ‘Bing Bang (Time to dance)’ from the Lazytown childrens show soundtrack CD.

Porto Heli Easter 2012

izzy — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:00:44 +0000

We had a great easter here in Porto Heli, members of the volunteer team and the Porto Heli cultural society worked hard making an ‘Easter village’ on the central village lawn and rehersing the local schoolchildren for the traditional Greek dancing performance on Easter Sunday. The Easter Bazaar was held on Big Saturday with a wealth of hand-made wreaths, candles, baskets, icons, decorated flower pots, soft toys & more and following the ritual ‘Burning of Judas’ (plenty of fireworks) on Easter Sunday the local kids performed traditional dances from all over Greece so well that visitors to the area assumed we had a professional dancing troupe! Easter Monday saw an easter egg hunt (with chocolates all round), face-painting and the showing of a kids film. All in all a huge success, thanks to all volunteers and participants.

Easter 2012 – programme of events

izzy — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:01:49 +0000

Spring has arrived and Easter is nearly upon us, next Monday is the start of ‘Big’ week, culminating in Easter Sunday on the 15th. I’ve got an article about Greek Orthodox Lent and Easter for you with more information about that. In the meantime, the volunteers and good ladies of the village have been preparing the celebrations and lots of goodies for an Easter Bazaar. An ‘Easter village’ will be set up on the grassy areas in the centre of the village and the programme of events is as follows:

13/04/2012 – Big Friday – 21:00

The procession of the ’Epitaphio’ through the village

14/04/2012 – Big Saturday – 10:00

Easter Bazaar and, of course, the ‘Christos Anesti’ mass at midnight

15/04/2012 – Easter Sunday – 20:30

The burning of Judas & traditional Greek dances by the children of the village

16/04/2012 – Easter Monday – 18:00

Fun for kids: Easter egg hunt, Face-Painting, Easter Bazaar & a childrens film

Porto Heli Photos & Postcards

izzy — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:55:41 +0000

Eventually, phew! THE Porto Heli Photo Gallery is up and running and I’m updating it as fast as I can. The first photos up are from the Spetses Classic Yacht Race 2011 and a few wildlife images. Between what I should be doing and what I really want to do is a somewhat large gap but I’m trying!

I’ve also put up E-Postcards from Porto Heli, where you can choose to send an e-postcard, for free, to your friends. Just a few pics so far but I’ll add to them too.

B.T.W. I’ve redesigned Web Design by Izzy, there is the plain & informative old version or the funky, horizontally scrolling, graphic new version. Go on, live dangerously!

Mother’s Day in Greece

izzy — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:34:53 +0000

Cybele, the mother of gods.

The origins of the holiday and the date on which Mother’s Day (not to be confused with Mothering Sunday) is celebrated around the world are varied. Many countries celebrate on the second Sunday of May and others, like the UK, celebrate on the 4th Sunday of Lent.

In Ancient Greece, and later Ancient Rome there was a cult dedicated to the goddess Cybele, who was a strong-willed party girl and a mother of gods. She shared traits with Gaia (The Earth Mother), Rhea (daughter of Gaia) and Demeter (The Corn-Mother goddess) and was evoked as a protector in some city-states, including Athens. Usually depicted as an exotic, foreign and mysterious goddess arriving in a lion-drawn chariot with a delirously happy and rowdy crowd, wild music and plenty of wine she was also associated with hawks, lions and mountains. The more prudish folk ignored her, preferring better behaved deities, which explains why she had widely varying numbers of followers in the different areas of Greece. To be honest, Cybele sounds like my kind of goddess!

A festival to worship Cybele may well be the origin of the Mother’s Day celebration in Greece, which is now held on the second Sunday of May or Sunday 13th May, 2012.

Photo by Marshall Astor, http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeontheedge/345508090/sizes/o/

Greek Traditions – Martis

izzy — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:01:01 +0000

March is considered the first month of spring and on the first day of the month it is traditional for the children (or their mothers) to put on a plaited red and white thread bracelet (Martiatiko/ Μαρτάτικο), made on the last day of February, which is worn until it falls off to protect the wearer from the ‘evil eye’ or bad wishes of others. Some say it is to be worn until the first swallow is seen and then you leave it on a rosebush for the birds to make their nest with or, if Greek Othodox Easter fall in March, you burn the Martiatiko with the flame from your Lambatha. See my post on Greek Orthodox Lent and Easter for more about that. Another version of this tradition has the Martiatiko worn from the first of March until the end of summer to protect the wearer from the heat of the sun. A rough translation of the saying: «Του Μάρτη ο ήλιος βάφει και πέντε μήνες δεν ξεβάφει» is “The March sun dyes and you don’t fade for 5 months”.

Sources:
http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C%CE%AC%CF%81%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82
http://www.matia.gr/7/77/77_1_5.html

Traditional Greek Martiatika thread bracelets