The carnival celebration is an old strong tradition for all the Cretans but Rethymno town is the best place in Crete to get the carnival mood in early spring every year.
The custom comes from the ancient times when Greeks used to celebrate and pray to God Dionysos (the God of grape yards and wine) asking mother Earth to become fertile and help the plant cultures to grow well.
Since Greeks became Christians the custom transferred in the last celebration before the 40 days fast period till Easter.
No matter the period of history, carnival days were always the chance for people to forget their problems, dress with funny costumes, drink, sing and dance in the streets, and make jocks – satyr of the problems.
In our days, there is a great atmosphere in the whole town of Rethymno especially during the last weekend with many carnival parties and live concerts.
The pick of the festival are the 2 parades.
The Saturday 12th of March Night Parade
The leading figures of the night parade are people on stilts, followed by the King of the carnival (a construction which will end up in flames the next – and last day of the festival).
Later on, it is people’s turn to parade walking or dancing as carnival music is everywhere from many speakers on the street’s colons. It is really funny to watch them, dressed in nice, colorful costumes, especially the young students of Rethymno University, who are the protagonists of the carnival.
A couple of hours later the parade is over, but it didn’t happen the same to the mood for night life.
All the bars of the town are full of people till early morning.
It is impressive as the next day the celebration will continue with the great day parade! The good news is that it starts after 2pm so there are a few hours for rest, even though nobody seems to care for a sleep!
Here is a couple of photo galleries from the night parade. Enjoy it.
After midday, people start gathering at the central street of Rethymno, where police does not allow any vehicle to enter. (The surrealistic picture of a police man <behind bars> fits with the carnival atmosphere)!
The volunteers organization <The Samaritans> are also in present to offer first aid in any case of emergency.
It’s really pity that most of the foreigners are not aware of the beautiful carnival atmosphere in Rethymno. Here are two of the very few lucky ones. Ups, they saw me.
It was 2.00 o clock afternoon when the big parade started, people’s mood was great, weather was mild and pleasant (about 16 degrees C) and it seemed that there would be no rain to make things difficult, though it was cloudy.
Take your time to get the feeling as pictures say more than words.
