CHAPTER
VII
FESTIVALS AND FOLKLORE NancoT] a'aapfiiraTS'ape
2 apfinaTS'ape
v'iS
ko.
cr(rvaTro'r]
Then a holiday and then a
A
Travayy'rjppH
aapnTrara'apTja Trjaeprj. festival,
holiday not like the holiday of yesterday.
Codex Demonie,
f.
91
THIS
chapter is only a fragment for it deals primarily with the festivals and folklore of Samarina as far as we came in contact with them, and we record them here to complete our picture of Vlach life as illustrated
by that
village.
elsewhere which
The
To this we have added notes on folk customs we have seen or enquired about on the spot.
Ayios Akhillios at Ghrevena can hardly be it serves mainly as a meeting-place for the families on their way up to their villages, Samarina, Avdhela, Perivoli and Smiksi. The first true festival occurs about a month after this. It takes place on the day of St Peter and St Paul, one of the great feasts of the Orthodox Eastern Church, and the two following days. All the muleteers come back to the village for it, and the families, which cannot get up in time for the fair of Ghrevena, will try to reach the village by Mavronoro, which is the special name for fair
of
considered as a festival for
this festival at
The Vlachs lages,
also
Samarina and
of Verria, still
who
its
three
nomad
neighbours.
are colonists from these four vil-
preserve this
name
for the festival.
It
is
from the Kupatshar village of Mavronoro near Ghrevena, where in days gone by they used to hold a fair on the day of St Peter and St Paul which was very well attended. Pouqueville refers to the fair, and on the flyleaf of a book in the monastery of St Barlaam at Meteora some manuscript notes mention the price silk fetched at this fair in 1786. It derived
9