Today, as has been done for hundreds of years; Greek communities all over the world will partake in the annual Epiphany celebration. Epiphany, or Theophania in Greek, is one of the most important religious holidays and commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River. Many communities hold ceremonies were clergy members will throw a cross into a body of water in order to bless it.
There is also usually a dive for the cross by members of the community and the one to retrieve the cross is believed to have luck for the year.
One of the largest events in the diaspora includes the Tarpon Springs Epiphany celebration which will draw tens of thousands of people to the town in Florida. West Palm Beach, Florida will also hold an Epiphany celebration but it will not be until this weekend.
Greek communities in Turkey have also reintroduced the tradition after many years of it not being allowed to be held.
The old ties between southern Italy and Greece are rekindled during Epiphany as the city of Palermo, Sicily holds an Epiphany event as well.
DF: Is your town or city holding an Epiphany celebration? Let us know!
posted on Tuesday, January 6
west palm beach
united states
We admit we're suckers for well designed, good looking products. Apple iPhone? Now that's sexy. But who says great design can't be applied to selling frozen fish? Take for instance Kefalonia Fisheries, which recently underwent the cosmetic knife and won a 2008 European Design Award for it's new and unique packaging.
We poked around a bit and found some other great looking packaging from other Greek food producers. Enjoy.
DF: Fast fact - Greece has come to dominate world sea-bass production. Kefalonia Fisheries pioneered the fish farm revolution back in the early 80's!
Thanks to lovelypackage and mousegraphics.
posted on Monday, January 5
posted on Thursday, January 1
As we count down the final hours of 2008; Greece and Greek related items had their fair share of airtime on the media. Here are some of the stories that included Greece and Cyprus in the last year. While this is not of course a full list (just a small snippet) here are some big stories that were mentioned. Please feel free to add more below.
Greece Rioting - Probably the top story that brought Greece to the spotlight in 2008 was the least favorable. December saw the world focus its attention on Athens and several cities in Greece as protesters and anarchists rampaged through streets causing extensive property damage just as the Christmas shopping season hit its peak.
Archbishop Christodoulos Passes - Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and all of Greece, passed away in January of 2008 after a long battle with cancer. He was attributed with trying to re energize the youth in getting involved with the church.
Immigration, immigration - Many of Greece's islands were in the news periodically throughout the summer as throngs of immigrants tried to reach Greece's shores from various parts of the world. 2008 looks to be a record year in the number of immigrants who were intercepted trying to reach Greece. (And who knows how many made the journey.)
Bye bye Olympic - After bidding processes, and efforts by the government to save the ailing airline; Olympic will cease to exist in 2009 as Greece's National carrier. Aegean Airlines has continued expanding internationally on the other hand, continuing to replace Olympic's former routes. So long Olympic.
Cyprus talks restarted - In what many are seeing as a last effort to unite the island, members of the Turkish community of the island and the Greek recognized government of the south have begun dialogues and talks to reunify the island. Will there finally be peace in 2009?
FYROM name game - Greece's neighbor to the north was a thorn politically throughout much of 2008 as threats, propaganda and name calling was common between the governments of Greece and FYROM. FYROM became furious with Greece after it was blocked from entering the EU in April.
Shipping domination continues - The Greek shipping industry continued to grow in size in 2008 and was going for a very profitable year before the economic crisis hit. We will see what is in store for 2009.
Greek bank growth abroad - Acquisitions and mergers was a top story also in the Greek financial industry in the early part of 2008 as Greek banks continued to expand their presence throughout the Balkans, Turkey and Egypt.
What happened to Greek sports? - A weak performance by Greece in the Euro 2008 Soccer Championship was only a precursor to what was to happen in Greek international sports for the year. Doping scandals with very prominent athletes hurt the image of several Greek teams and athletes, including several at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
We can only imagine what 2009 will have in store! Happy New Year Everyone and be safe!! Kali Xronia na exoume! - DF
posted on Wednesday, December 31
Athens what? Yes, a new small Greek airline named Athens Airways, has announced that its first domestic flight will take place between Athens and Alexandroupolis on January 15th. Athens Airways will be using Embraer ERJ-145 jets and will be in an alliance with the US-based charter company SkyOne. There will be more destinations added to the airlines system later in the year.
We checked out to see what airfares would cost for the one route from Athens to Alexandroupolis but no such info is out there yet. Olympic's days, by the way are numbered. Qatar Airways and Iberia Air have dropped their bids.
Other Greek news circuling the web:
Heavy snow blankets parts of northern Greece.
Greeks lose faith in their institutions.
The Greek pulse of Alexandria, Egypt beats on!
Athens strongly condemns violence in Gaza.
Palestinians protests outside Israeli embassy in Athens.
posted on Tuesday, December 30
Now that the euro has pretty much reached parity with the British pound, the UK travel industry is anxious to see what the new year will bring. After a dismal November and December, Spain and Greece were the two countries suffering the most from the weak pound with a 20% fall in bookings from the UK. Greek tourism officials have also come under fire for failing to respond to the downturn.
At a recent annual travel conference in London, the CEO of Thomas Cook (a leading UK travel group) told the press “The Greek Tourism Minister has been pretty hopeless. “The guy is under pressure, but to come to World Travel Market for three days and to be too busy to meet with the UK travel industry is outrageous.”
On the other hand, some non euro zone countries like Turkey have seen business from the UK shoot up 20%.
Travel Deals...
Olympic is running some great web based travel deals. Check them out here.
posted on Monday, December 29
"Kanenas"
In a recent opinion poll , people were asked which party they would vote for -- PASOK, the socialists, or Nea Dimikrotia the conservative party. Each party took 26% of the vote... but way out ahead in the lead was "kanenas" (no one) at 48 per cent. This poll was taken after the recent riots...via the london daily news.
Aah, always looking on the bright side...
In another opinion poll, Greeks continue to be the the most pessimistic people in the Eurozone; seven in ten believe their country is going in the wrong direction according to a euro barometer survey... The survey was taken before the riots... ekathimerini
92 percent of those surveyed also expect things to get worse over the next 12 months.
In other news...
Really, someone has to clear out the University; Hundreds of anarchists marched through Athens hours after a gunman from a University Campus opened fire at a riot-police bus.
Brits keeping tabs on media; Britons furious over government spending on "media clippings" which include keeping up to date on the latest spin over the Parthenon marbles debate...
posted on Wednesday, December 24
Despite the constant political demonstrations and on and off anarchist attacks in Athens and other parts of Greece for the past two weeks, the Greek Parliament narrowly approved the 2009 budget by a 151-147 margin. The main aim of next year's budget is to keep the fiscal deficit within the limits prescribed by the European Union.
Greece's GDP growth will slow down to 2.7% in 2009 from 3.2% in 2008, according to the budget, which aims to keep the deficit at 2% of GDP through restrained spending and by raising more than euro6 billion ($8.35 billion) in additional taxes. The European Union guidelines call for budget deficits below 3% of GDP.
The passing of the budget was not easy. Politicians from various parties were arguing about the riots and their responses instead of focusing on the core numbers. Some believe that a 2.7% growth in the GDP is a bit too optimistic given the global turn down (and with proper reason), but we will see what happens.
2009 Greece Budget
In the holiday spirit? Baking Greek Christmas cookies? Here is our recipe for some Kourabiedes. Enjoy!
Kourabiedes Recipe
posted on Tuesday, December 23
A pilot program that encouraged citizens of certain parts of Athens to recycle products in redemption for coupons proved to be quite popular and will be expanded to more parts of the city, and also Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Patras and Iraklion.
The compensatory recycling program awards coupons to citizens who recycle plastic, paper metal and other waste. (The coupon's values vary on the amount of material recycled.) In return, the coupon can be donated back to the recycling effort or can be used at various supermarkets to get discounts on items.
The nice thing with this concept is that the coupons are paid for by the packaging producers and thus no costs are passed down to the end consumer.
Athens currently has blue bins which it uses for recycling and has also created 25 special compensatory recycling kiosks throughout the city. It plans to add 75 more such kiosks in 2009. Alpha Bank has been a strong supporter of the kiosks.
Kathimerini
posted on Monday, December 22
Starting in 2011, you will have another way to get to Pireaus and the sea side suburbs of Athens. The Athens Tram network has announced plans to extend into the area, adding a total of about 5.4 kilometers to the network and about 12 stops. Residents and politicians have pushed for the metro to extend into the area but Transport Minister Costis Hatzidakis said that the 125 million euro addition to the tram will begin in earnest early next year. (We still think the metro would have been better.)
Pireaus is not alone in getting connected with the tram; a series of economic and feasibility studies are being conducted in the cities of Patras(250,000) , Ioannina (75,000) and Volos(100,000) to see how a tram network might benefit those cities.
DF: For smaller cities that might not be able to afford a whole metro system (and where it would not feasibly make sense) the idea of a small tram network might be an interesting concept. We will see. Have a great weekend everybody.
Kathimerini
posted on Friday, December 19
