TRADITION AND CULTURE

Areas and Costumes

From Linear B to ancient Greek and from there to a multitude of different dialects to today's modern Greek, the Greek language has proven that it is a living dynamic language, one of the few in the world that presents a homogeneous evolution and is a rare phenomenon in the linguistic history of the human race because it is spoken for thousands of years without interruption.

The modern Greek language preserves the ancient writing and spelling of words and 75% of its vocabulary is based on the ancient Greek language.

Approximately 28,000 English words, including keywords such as idea, theory, system, analysis, synthesis, category, hierarchy, method, hypothesis, myth, poetry, drama, music, harmony, politics, democracy, thence, machine, episteme, psyche, Eros, ecclesia, Christ, Europe, theology, etc. are all words of the Greek language

It is a language with unique virtues: it has expressiveness, flexibility, synthetic power, and the productive ability to produce and compose new words according to needs.

Considering that the Greek language evolved and was enriched with words and expressions from the ever-changing everyday life, the history and tradition consist of elements that have been preserved until today, rendering it the most important means of genuine expression of the Greek Culture.

In the spoken language, quotations of popular wisdom are idiomatic expressions, proverbs, proverbial phrases, which were and are widely used by the people, so much so that they have long ceased to be distinguished from the everyday phrases of the basic body of the language or to constitute a criterion of knowledge. They have penetrated deep into the core of the Greek language, were incorporated, assimilated and became one with it.

The contents of the pages of the site concerning the Greek language provide information on learning sounds, words, and phrases for basic everyday oral communication in the modern Greek language, and collections of phrases of popular wisdom, riddles, etc. which are listed with the corresponding historical/laographic information.

All the information provided is the result of personal experience, involvement, research and recording, by a native speaker who is passionate about the Greek language. It is neither a scientific study nor, of course, a complete guide for the systematic and complete learning of the Greek language.

The purpose is enjoyable learning about the cultural aspects of the modern greek language as a communication tool.

Greece has a rich folk tradition and one of its most important expressions is undoubtedly the traditional costume.
Rooted deep, into ancient times, the Greek costume was left to the influence of history, the environment, institutions, morals and customs.
Observing the many variations of the Greek costume, their fancy colors, the delicacy of the ornaments, the effort for originality and specificity, one sees the character of the people reflected in them.
The traditional Greek costumes must have begun to take shape in the way that we know, in the mid-17th and 18th centuries.

As far as clothing is concerned, the Greek traditional costume presents a great variety depending on the region (island, mainland Greece), the use (everyday, festive, girlish, bridal, old age), the profession, the social status and the economic situation.

The costume is also divided into male and female. Both types of costumes consist of many pieces. But the one that presents more variety and interest is the female costume.
In traditional Greek culture, every costume "carries" messages about the social status of a person, especially a woman. In local society, the costume indicates whether a woman is single or married, newly married, has children or is a widow.
An example of this complex semiotics is the more than 40 different motifs that adorn the Thracian Sarakatsan costumes. Combinations of these patterns indicate not only the place of origin but also the social status, occupation and detailed marital status of a person, especially women.

Greek costumes are also divided into plain-agricultural, mountain, urban, island costumes. However, there is in several cases a strong diversity in the costumes of the same category, especially women's costumes, which not only differ from region to region but often also from village to village.

The local women's clothing in Greece began to change radically with the continuous invasion of western fashion, in the 19th century, first with the European queens (Amalia, Olga, Sofia) and then with the constant contact of the small town with the capital and the village with the small town.

Most of the clothes, mainly in the villages, were made by them, mainly on the household loom. Of course, there were also tailors - embroiderers in some cases wandering. The rich costumes of the urban costumes were made of fabrics of workshops of Constantinople, Chios and Cyprus as well as of European origin.

Regarding women's costumes are divided into three categories:

in the costumes with the siguni (sleeveless woolen coat)

in costumes with the kavadi (kind of open to bottom long sleeve dress)

in costumes with the dress

The majority of the costumes consist of:

The shirt

The dress-coat (siguni, kavadi)

The dress

The belt and the apron

The short coat, vest, etc. (types of short-sleeved or sleeveless cardigans)

The various underwear and small accessories

The headdresses and headbands

The jewelry and other ornaments-decorations

The socks and shoes

The study of the Greek traditional costume is a field of inexhaustible research. Numerous books are circulating about the history and art of Greek traditional costumes, while exhibitions of traditional costumes are in museums, collections, villages.

The oldest and richest collection in Greece is the collection of the Benaki Museum (Athens)

Evzonas National costume

The selected soldiers of the Greek army who became a symbol carry a long history in their uniforms.
The Evzoni costume with its long history is part of Greece's national identity and is inextricably linked to the recent history of Greece.

Amalia National (Urban) costume

Queen Amalia, the first queen of Greece, created the so-called "Amalia outfit", a romantic folk court dress that went down in history as "Amalia" and became the national women's costume.

Roumlouki Macedonia costume

The costume of Roumlouki is different from the other Greek costumes with an important tradition back at Alexander the Great era.
The costume is characterized by the peculiar headband, which looks like a helmet and is locally called "katsouli", while it is a sign of Greek origin of the costume.