Halloween? No. Apokries.
Yesterday marked the beginning of Apokries, an annual three-week festival in Greece. Originally a pagan festival, believed to worship Dionysos, the God of wine and feast, it is now the period leading up to the Greek Orthodox Lenten season. Apokries means, literally, saying goodbye to meat.
The three weeks of Apokries are filled with children's parties, masquerade balls, feasting, parades and fireworks. Different regions of Greece celebrate with their own unique customs, which include a sasquatch-type creature called yeros. Celebrants dress as the yeros and dance through the streets, emitting hair-raising screams. Children, teenagers and adults dress up in disguises and roam their neighbourhoods in search of treats: candy for the children and drinks for the adults. And tricks. Local cafes are visited by masqueraders brandishing foam, streamers and confetti.
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