Greece never dies, nothing overshadows it…
In GREECE the Greco-Turkish war was certain. THE Erdogan would invade the islands. Unless he preferred to defeat Greece with a martyrdom tactic of the drop, sending tens of thousands of immigrants to the Evros until the character of the country is altered. It is of course doubtful even if the immigrants would want to stay in Greece. Everything would also be affected by the fires that would break out in the summer.
If the predictions for 2022 they had come true, at the end of the year in Greece, a people sick from Covid, who would not be able to cook a lamb that would cost 15 euros only for the electricity, would not be able to travel, since the lead-free go to 3 euros a liter, and he would be broke, since Russia, having cut off the supply to a plane, would wait for Putin to push the button to put him out of his misery.
They didn’t come out. Some got sick, some were forced by inflation, but life goes on. On a consumer level that only those of us who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and had to wear our older brother’s or father’s knitted socks can understand.
So because and 2023 will be predicted by the Media as a year of disasters, to quote the favorite phrase of my mother, Mrs. Leni. “Seventy years this country is going through a crisis. I don’t remember anyone saying this year, calm down, the country is not going through a crisis.”
This of course it does not concern SYRIZA. After the “successes” of the 2015-19 quadrennial, Mao’s “great upheaval, wonderful state” is the only feasible policy for SYRIZA.
But it’s abouts him Kyriakos Mitsotakis that if he addresses the citizens saying that as in 2022 we faced together the covid, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy issue in 2023, we will face the opposite difficulty. In boxing they say “it’s not how hard to hit, it’s how hard to hit and keep going”. Greece in 2022 received some hard blows. But he kept going.
New year and card game
THE YOUNGER they cannot understand the gambling craze that gripped Greece on New Year’s Day. Until the 70s when Athens was smaller, gambling was strictly prohibited. And the law was strictly enforced not like today with smoking. For 364 days a year, the constables entered the cafes. even at home. If the game being played was “technical”, like the declarant, she was fine. If it was “lucky”, like kum kan or barbuti, the players and shopkeeper went to the selfie. And if he had money on it, along with the table to be presented as proof in court.
THE PROHIBITIONS but they were suspended on New Year’s Eve and gambling was allowed “for the good of the time”. The result was once-a-year gamblers falling prey to professional gamblers waiting like crows on New Year’s Eve to pounce on them. In the first month the wish “happy new year” was accompanied by “how was yesterday?”. No answer was needed. You could tell by the face.
END of the New Year’s game came with the legalization of gambling. And it won’t be missed since, apart from the fact that fortunes had been lost, “let’s layer it up a bit” brought an end to a beautiful celebration.
Habits from ancient Rome
IN ANCIENT ROME the New Year was called “January Kalends”. Kalendes was the name of the first day of each month and the phrase “eis tas kalendas” that we say in Greek when we want to postpone something indefinitely, is not coincidental. It means that all New Year’s resolutions, from ‘I’m going to diet’, ‘I’m going to quit smoking’, to ‘I’m going to start walking’, with all the leftover kourabies and melomakaroni go ‘to the kalendas’. And don’t be taken by the bottom ride.
ROME which in 133 BC it had a population of 1 million. it is the first metropolis of the world. Some New Year’s customs of ancient Rome are preserved to this day. Such as eating sweets so that all the time passes sweetly, exchanging gifts, playing dice, men going out to taverns for reveille and organizing New Year’s Eve parties in houses and decorating the entrances with green branches. The mistletoe known to us, under which English tradition wants kisses to be exchanged.
MISTLETOE IN GREECE it’s a new story and as someone wrote, “if they call it mistletoe in New York, in Trikala we call it arkudoponararo”. A little better than Volos, which they call “lioporno”.