Trip to Ag. Georgios, Selinari, Ag. Nicholaos & Lassiti in 1961.

What I have to show you here is a rare film posted by John Sooklaris on Youtube. Now John has posted several films on the web that you can see here on this site. This film, from 1961 is special. It shows a trip calling in at St George, Selinari; a celebration at Agios Nicholaos – including a diver – and loads of people. Then the bus trip goes on to the Lassiti Plateau and actually shows all the spinning windmills that were so famous there and that I mentioned here on this site a while ago.

So here is the video, I hope that you enjoy it.

Then extraordinarily, someone posted a tribute to John Sooklaris by videoing St Georges in the year 2009. Here it is:

Enjoy.

M is for Milking Sheep

ABC Wednesday

On Saint George’s day in the village of Asigonia in Crete, the shepherds bring all of the herds down from the mountains to have them milked.

Shepherds milking their sheep

From the other side, it looks just like this:

Five sheep at a time

Then, of course, the milk has to be pasteurised:

Pasteurisation

Then the milk is given freely to anyone who wants some. The village priest then blesses the herd to keep them safe for the coming year.

Village priest blessing the herds of sheep

Of course the herds are milked every day but then the milk goes to the village co-operative cheese making factory right there in the village.

The village cheese making factory

At the back of the factory is the storehouse for the cheese where it is left to mature. The cheese that they make the most of is the delicious Cretan Graviera. Finally here are the great graviera cheeses stacked high.

Cretan Graviera Cheeses