Shamballa Cruising Yacht Club: Carnival in Lefkas, Greece

The word Carnival evokes images of ornately and scantily clad Brazilian beauties dancing down the streets of Rio or if you are Australian, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in Sydney.

Carnival in Brazil

Sydney Mardi Gras

In Greece, Apokries is the celebration of Carnival. Apokries (αποχή από κρέας) literally means ‘abstain from meat’ and marks the beginning of Lent in the Greek Orthodox tradition. But as with most Christian traditions, Apokreis also has its roots in the ancient traditions and is a celebration of the coming of spring and Dionysos, the God of Wine and Feast (and I suspect Dionysos gets the biggest nod in Apokries celebraions). The largest carnival in Greece is in the city of Patras, near the Rion-Andirion Bridge, which we passed under so spectacularly in early November.

Here in Lefkas, Carnival celebrations consist of 10 days of cultural events, parades and parties. Many of the clubs and pubs, which have been sleepy all winter, have awakened to become gaily decorated party venues that are hopping into the wee hours of the morning.

List of Carnival events

Our favourite place for gyros

Friday afternoon was the children's parade for Carnival. It was suppose to be the previous Friday but was postponed due to rain (of course during this wettest of winters!). We were quite glad of the postponement as we were not aware of it the previous week. The parade was great to see. Each school was dressed up in different themes. Everyone was blowing whistles and making as much noise as possible. The teachers were having as much fun as the kids.

Celebrating Chinese New Year - Year of the Dog

Mexicans in Greece

Sunday evening was the adult parade which was amazing. It lasted for over 3 hours. The costumes and floats were just incredible. The music and noise deafening and everyone was dancing and buzzing with joie de vivre. We couldn’t imagine were everyone came from. There were hundreds participating in the parade in elaborate costumes and floats that must have taken months to make, plus spectators lined the pedestrian mall parade route like sardines. Lefkas only has 8600 people and everyone seemed to take part in the Carnaval. Greeks do these community events so well.

The following day was 'Clean Monday' (Καθαρά Δευτέρα) which marks the start of Lent and spring. I suspect there were a few people nursing hangovers in the morning! But the tradition for the day is for families to go on picnics with special foods and to fly kites. No meat is eaten but seafood is allowed. A must on the menu is flat bread called lagana which is dipped in taramosalata, a delicious dip of salted roe followed by halva for desert.