The farewell concert last night from Nana Mouskouri was very good, bearing in mind that Nana was born on the 13th of October 1934 in Hania and today is 73 years old.

Nana Mouskouri in Hania

She sang very well and we enjoyed the concert tremendously in spite of the fact that twice the generator broke down and everything was plunged into darkness. Nana and her band took up a few acoustic instruments and kept on singing though. Once the generator was fixed, a woman collapsed in the crowd and was stretchered out. But still the music kept on coming, many of the old favourites - in greek, of course.

Nana at the Hania Harbour

When Nana was young and learning to sing it was found that she had one vocal chord thicker than the other, it made it harder to learn but it still gives her voice that wonderful distinctiveness. She has had a long stage life, been a UNICEF ambassador as well and sang for Luxembourg in the Eurovision song contest many years ago in 1963.

But Nana is still a greek and her parents - Dad was a cinema projectionist and Mum an usherette, managed to get her noticed and into the famous Conservatoire where she learned classical music and to sing opera. Later she teamed up with the famous greek writer and musician, Manos Hadjidakis who wrote many of her songs.

For me, I will always remember the ‘White Rose of Athens’ and now she was given a huge bunch of white flowers and last night in Hania she said goodbye to the town of her birth and walked away to tremendous applause.

Goodbye from Nana

You may remember me writing about the new dam that is designed to provide water for Rethymnon. Well now, at least for about a month or two, the new dam is closed and water is rising.

It is rising slowly so that they can continue rearranging the roads that will soon be flooded. Not just the road through the valley to the Amari, but also roads that turn off toward villages.

The new road through the valley, the one that I mostly take up to the Amari has now been diverted quite spectacularly. Now the road goes right across the top of the dam and along a new higher road, at least above the waterline on the opposite side of the valley.

Here you see the road right along the top of the dam wall. At the other end of the valley, on the Amari side, the old road through the valley is closed and you are directed right to use the new road.

There is still a bit more road building to complete, but the dam is finished and when it fills it will certainly be the biggest lake in Crete, much bigger than Kounas Lake which is currently the largest.

Much as I love Crete and Greece, I love extraordinary talent, especially in music. As an Englishman it is wonderful that one of the greatest musical bands I have seen for a long time is, in fact, English.

Appearing on the musical talent show - ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ was a four girl band called eScala. There are two violinists, a viola and a cello. They are quite remarkable. Why Britain cannot put a band such as this on the Eurovision song contest is beyond my understanding. Look at them here and tell me what you think:

Wonderful . . . .

You may have noticed that our Greek News feed was down for a couple of days. There seems to be a problem with the ERT newsfeed, not here but with ERT itself. Anyway, I apologise to those of you who come here to see what is happening in Greece. But worry not, it is now fixed.

I have switched the feed to Kathimerini - the popular daily greek newspaper which we all love. You will now see at least twenty headlines on every page which will be updated at all times the feed updates, several times a day, as I understand it.

And of course, it will be all in English so that you can always see all that is happening in Greece.

I have recently applied to join the top 100 Cretan sites list and been accepted. The way that it works is that you, the reader, have to vote for us to get anywhere near the top. So if you like this site and want to vote for us, just click here and then click the ‘Vote’ link on the page that comes up.

I have also added the link some way down the right hand side of the pages where it says: ‘Vote For Us’.

As I have said, it’s not a big thing, but a few votes might help.

And thanks for coming to read the blog, I do really hope that you enjoy it.

This week, the week before the Easter celebrations is known in Greece as Megali Evdomada, Holy Week or Great Week. Today is Megali Pempti, Holy Thursday, the day that traditionally the people of Greece hard boil and die their eggs the colour of the blood of Christ - red.

Tomorrow is Good Friday, a day of respect and mourning for Christ. In the evening is the service of remembrance when the priest takes down the icon of Christ off the cross, wraps it in linen and places it in the casket. The casket is called the Epitaphion which has, this week, been decked with flowers by local women and girls. After the service, the Epitaphion is carried around the village or town as in a funeral procession. Back at the church the Epitaphion is often raised high over the doorway so that the congregation can pass underneath it. To pass between the dead Christ and the ground is considered to be very lucky.

On Saturday, the fast that so many take just leading up to Easter is continued. In the late evening towards midnight there is the Church service that celebrates the rising of Christ. At midnight all light in the church is extinguished. In the darkness at the alter the priest turns with a single candle crying ‘Christos Anesti’, Christ is risen. All the people have brought their unlit candle to the church to receive the light of Christ, brought all the way from the cave of Christ’s nativity in Jerusalem, from the priest. They try to carry their light back with them to their house which will bring luck for the family for the year. Also they make a cross over the doorway in candle smoke to bless the house.

Then the great bonfire is lit as well as crackers and maybe even gunshots may be heard as the celebrations begin. Here in Crete a guy is dressed and burned on the fire as Judas. Now that midnight has passed the fast is over and meat and so on can be eaten again. In the morning of Holy Sunday the spits are fired up and whole lambs are roasted. After the meal one takes the red eggs and cracks them against the next person’s egg saying Christos anesti. If your egg is the last to crack then you will have very good luck.

We call this festival Easter but for the Greeks it is called Pasxa. This literally means the passing over of Christ from here on earth to the Kingdom of Heaven. Greek Easter is often on days different to our own date of Easter. The reason for this is that the date of Greek or Orthodox Easter is still calculated on the Julian calendar, which is some 13 days behind the more modern Gregorian calendar. Greek Orthodox Easter should fall on the Sunday that follows the first full moon after the spring or vernal equinox. Also Greek Easter is always after the Jewish Passover.

Kalo Pasxa, Happy Easter.

I guess that you all know by now that the Island of Crete has a huge number of wild flowers. Many are found only in Crete. It is in the springtime that these flowers mostly burst out into their individual beauty. And that is when I’m on the prowl with my trusty camera. These pictures were taken over the last few days . . .

These are the beautiful pink Cretan Orchids that simply burst out of the ground and are soon in wonderful colour.

This is a fine wild lily - hey, I’m not a botanist, I just love the flowers.

Here we have the superb wild lupins that grow wonderfully in Crete. I have seen olive groves full of them.

This is the splendid, almost silk like, wild iris that I have only seen in Crete. They are large flowers that open with a soft delicacy and last for a few days when they die and a second one, brand new, opens on the same stem. Enjoy.

Plakias is a nice fairly small beach resort in the south of Crete. All summer long there people sunbathing and a plethora of beach umbrellas. In the early spring, in March, I took this extraordinary picture of the sun shining on Plakias whilst the sky above was black and about to break out into a storm.

It seems to me that only in Crete do you get the fine light to take photographs like these.

I just had an email from John Sooklaris that said:

Ray, If I had realized that these movies that I sat and watched when I was a kid, and fell asleep to, as my father would show them to all of our relatives, time and time again, would create such interest in the world, I would have posted them a long time ago when my father was alive. Alas, I am happy with the interest that we have received by people like yourself, and my mother is, no doubt, flattered by the interest as well. Yes, I just happened to visit your site yesterday, before receiving this message and even changed the one about Akrotiri in which you said I was confused. I wasn’t really confused, but just ignorant to all of the places in these videos. With the help of people, like yourself, we’ll get this all straightened out so we can properly inform our viewers. But I did take your word for it and changed it to the Agia Triada in Akrotiri. I will read your other comments on the other videos as well, as I do care about the quality of information that I post. Thanks for your help, as I continue to post the remaining videos from that time. John Sooklaris

Here is the latest video from John - part 1 0f 2:

I don’t recognise the first memorial, but the second after a minute or so is certainly the memorial south of Hania on the Omalos road at the Alikiarnos junction. This is a memorial to those dead in the last war when the Germans occupied Crete. There is listed the names of those killed in around five local villages. In the basement of this memorial is a glass ossuary containing many skulls of those killed, each with a bullethole over the right ear.

Later in this movie I see the hospital in Rethymnon which was newly built in those days. The big ceremony/festival near the end of the movie is certainly in Eleftheriou Square (Freedom Square) in Iraklion. That’s the one with all the crowds and marching soldiers. If you watch carefully you will see the Iraklion Morosini  Fountain twice.

Here is part 2 of 2 of this film.

The first part of this film is obviously a trip eastwards from Iraklion towards Agios Nicholas. The first part of the film is a stop at St Georges church in the gorge of Selinari near the village of Vrahassi. I remember this place on the first bus I took when I arrived in Crete going to Agios Nicholas. No Cretan can pass this shrine without stopping. The whole busload got out and said a quiet prayer here.

Most of the rest of the film is taken in Agios Nicholas - you can clearly see the small lake with the boats that connects to the sea. The final part of the film is I feel taken on a trip to the Lassiti Plateau - you can see the windpumps/windmills.

If any of you out there can do better than me and identify more of the places in the film, of which there may be several, then I and John would be grateful. Please post a comment.

I would appreciate it and so would John Sooklaris. In memory of his father who took these great films.

This is another of Anthony Sooklaris’s movies published by his son John Sooklaris.

I think that John is a little confused about the whereabouts of this movie but I see it clearly as at the monastery Agia Triada, the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Akrotiri. I don’t know if the day was a special celebration or just a welcome for the Cretan Americans but it all happened in 1961.

Here is what John had to say about this movie: “Akrotiri Chordaki Sternes 1961

This video takes place in what appears to be Chordaki Akrotiri Crete Greece, and then moves on to Sternes at the home of Kosta Verganelakis. Early on the video, I believe I recognized Themistocle Tsouchlarakis as well as Antoni Panagirakis who is the dancing Chorofilaka.

Beyond these few faces, I don’t know anyone else in the video. I would love to hear your comments and hear from you if you recognize anyone, the villages, the reason for the get-together, and anything else that you would like to share.

Because I noticed a female lyratzida, I selected the music of Tasoula to serenade you while you watch this movie clip.”

The word lyratzida means violinist.

The link to the website of Agia Triada is here

I hope that you enjoy this unique movie.