A vibrant display of colors and a delightful mix of sweet, refreshing, and earthy aromas on Mykonos.Credit: Mykonoslive.tv Mykonos welcomed May Day with the traditional exhibition of wreaths that was a feast for the senses, offering a vibrant display of colors and a delightful mix of sweet, refreshing, and earthy aromas. May Day wreaths symbolize the rebirth of nature with spring, a fact that people want to bring into their homes. The wreath itself symbolizes life, growth, and good luck. It’s believed to bring prosperity and protect homes from evil spirits. Mykonos has its distinct tradition ..read more

The first day of Maios (Πρωτομαγιά, or Protomagia, in modern Greek) celebrates the final victory of the summer against winter and the victory of life against death. Credit:  kshelbz, CC0, Wikimedia Commons The May Day wreath has its roots in Ancient Greece. The name of the month of May, or Maios in Greek (Μάιος), originates from the ancient goddess Maia (in Greek Μαία) and is a reborrowing from Latin, as the Romans were the first to name the month after her. According to Greek mythology, Maia was one of the Pleiades and the mother of Hermes by Zeus. Daughter of Atlas and Pleione the ..read more

Statue of Marcus Aurelius, one of the most famous Roman emperors to love ancient Greece and its philosophy. Credit: Livioandronico2013 / Wikimedia commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Several prominent ancient Roman emperors loved Greece and did not keep it a secret. As the Roman Empire consolidated, Greek culture, literature, politics, philosophy, and art continued to flourish. The elites cultured themselves on Greece and its beauties in order to better fit the role models of the time. Initially, opinions were divided among patricians. While some saw Greek culture with mistrust, others embraced it. Some Ro ..read more

Konstantinos Cavafy or Kavafis, the Greek poet and master at saying a lot with very little. Konstantinos Kavafis — or Constantine Peter Cavafy as he was internationally known — was one of the greatest Greek poets. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt on April 29, 1863, the last of nine children of the wealthy merchant Petros-Ioannou Kavafis. He died on the very same date seventy years later, in 1933. In a short autobiography, Kavafis wrote of his life: “I hail from Constantinople, but I was born in Alexandria – in a house on Sherif Street. When I was very young I left and spent much of my childhoo ..read more

Lambatha candles made by John Athanasiou in Florida. Credit: John Athanasiou Lambatha candles are an important part of the Greek Easter service that takes place on Holy Saturday, and one Greek, who moved to the US seven years ago, is now making and selling his own at a Greek market in Florida. Two months ago, John Athanasiou took some time to learn how to make candles before opening his online store MyCandleLand, with the aim of selling Lambatha candles to the Greek community in Florida. In Greece, it is traditional for godparents to gift their godchildren decorated (Lambatha) candles, to brin ..read more

Dancers smashing plates at Opa Hollywood, as per Greek tradition. Credit: Greek Reporter The sound of a plate smashing, shattering loudly as it meets the floor, is distinctive and tends to turn heads in a restaurant. Most of us, startled, “think, Oh No!” an unfortunate accident has occurred. But when plates shatter on the floor at a gathering of Greeks – whether it is at a taverna, a wedding, a baptism, or an intimate party, smashing those plates is no accident. Breaking plates is done purposely, accompanied by music, in celebration, and you will often hear the word “Opa!” expressed with great ..read more

Portrait of Lord Byron, one of the world’s greatest Philhellenes, by Phillips, 1813. Credit: Public Domain George Gordon, or Lord Byron, one of the first and best-known philhellenes, actively participated in battles in Greece’s War of Independence, eventually losing his life in Missolonghi on April 19, 1824. Born in 1788, Gordon, who had the title of Lord Byron, became the leading figure of British Romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century. He lived a full life in every aspect and died young for a cause he was passionate about, which turned him into greater romantic legend than he had b ..read more

The Parthenon and the Colosseum. Public Domain “Greece, conquered Greece, her conqueror subdued, And Rome grew polished, who till then was rude.” Horace, the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste to the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied. However, the traditions of Greek cultural life continued to flourish during the centurie ..read more

The Mosque in Thessaloniki was turned into a museum. Credit: Ggia, CC BY-SA 3.0 Hundreds of faithful gathered on Wednesday for the Eid Muslim prayers at Thessaloniki’s Yeni Mosque which opened for the first time in more than 100 years in Greece. Crowds were seen arriving to pray early in the morning at the iconic Mosque led by the Egyptian Imam Taha Abd El-Galil, a Greek citizen and member of the religious committee of the Islamic mosque in Athens. The prayer, which concluded after half an hour, was conducted in Arabic, followed by a sermon in both Arabic and Greek. The decision by Gree ..read more

The Venus de Milo is an ancient Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period. Credit: Bradley N. Weber/CC BY 2.0 On this day in 1820, a Greek farmer discovered the Aphrodite of Milo, better known as the Venus de Milo, one of the most representative statues of the Hellenistic period of Greek sculpture, and one of the most famous sculptures of ancient Greece. Created sometime between 130 BC and 100 AD, it is believed that it represents Aphrodite (called Venus in Roman mythology), the goddess of love and beauty. The statue was found half-buried, in two pieces, on April 8, 1820, when a Milos island ..read more