Customs and Legends

Customs and Legends - Cyprus Usefull Information - Green Paradise North Cyprus Estates

In Cyprus hospitality and generosity will be found to be at the root of most conventions, typified perhaps by the frequent provision in cafes of five chairs for the use of one customer, so that he may have support for each of his limbs as well as his trunk! The generosity of a host can best be returned by a different kind of thoughtfulness: a particular care to avoid the appearance of hurry, especially in the drinking of the ceremonial Turkish coffee, which is produced everywhere for a guest at all times of the day. It is rude to leave before the cup has become cold. Preserved fruit, spoonfuls of jam, or even glasses of water, should also be accepted whenever proffered, for they are gestures of hospitality rather than provision for appetite, or even refreshment.

As in other countries, especially those which have a considerable peasant population, pagan superstitions die hard. Actually, they seldom die but are modified before being incorporated into Christianity as, for instance, the dedication of wax replicas of afflicted persons or their diseased limbs to the saints who have effected cures, and, of course, the votive rags which adorn trees near wells or shrines credited with miraculous properties. Not only the feast days of the Church but the customs appertaining to them have developed from pagan feasts. The sesamota, or Christ's Bread, which is baked and eaten ritually at Christmas is an illustration also the kolliva, a kind of boiled wheat which at that season is blessed and distributed in memory of the dead. There is also a period of propitiation of evil spirits, the kalikandjaros, who are supposed to be at large from All Souls' Day until Epiphany, on which day they can be appeased and banished by an offering of xerotiana, a special kind of doughnut.

Cataclysmos is the festival unique to Cyprus, and the one which has least connection with Christianity, although the Church has done its best to appropriate what was originally the Feast of Aphrodite. It has been re named Cataclysmos in an optimistic attempt to identify it with commemoration of the Great Flood of Noah's time, and it has also been included in the calendar by fixing the date as fifty days after Easter.

Cyprus is the Mediterranean island which has always been most closely associated with the cult of Aphrodite and Adonis. The mysteries of these gods are believed to have been introduced from Egypt by Kinyras, the priest king, who set up the very famous Temple of Aphrodite, near Paphos, not far from the foamy stretch of beach believed by the ancient world to be the birthplace of the goddess. The spring Festival of Aphrodite consisted of three days of worship, initiation and feasting, during which the goddess was said to reveal herself, riding naked on the waves, to the young people of Cyprus to whom the gods had bequeathed their beauty. During this period of feasting her alter ego, Adonis, the bright youth who was killed while hunting in the hills of Cyprus, was allowed by the Olympian gods to return to earth, and his advent, too, was greeted with rejoicing, feasting and musical contests. It is fascinating to find that similar competitions, known as chattismata or poetic arguments, persist to this day as an important part of the feast of Cataclysmos. The performances may have deteriorated into doggerel and humorous invective, and they may bear closer resemblance to Aristophanes than Aeschylus, but the evolution will be welcomed by many people, except possibly the classicists, now that some of the polish and the pompousness has worn off. The modern competitions, which usually take place towards the end of the day, and even so arc apt to be protracted affairs, are great fun because of their human interest. The whole day is celebrated with a great deal of archaic gusto and sense of happiness, especially that part of it which consists of sprinkling everyone with sea water, both on shore and from boats. It may be that there is a lingering Venetian influence here, something remaining from the great water carnivals of that seafaring nation. Or the custom may be simply a re-enactment of the birth of Aphrodite from the foam of the sea. But whatever its composite origins, Cataclysmos is a very popular feast, in both senses of the word, and Larnaca, with its traditional fair and junketing, is probably the most lively place for its celebration, as well as for admiration of the smooth manner in which the Goddess of Love has become identified with the Blessed Virgin. Indeed, Aphrodite and the Queen of Heaven are difficult to separate in either belief or legend. Cyprus has another queen, one who is usually spoken of quite simply as 'Regina', and whose myth has attached itself to the three romantic castles of the Kyrenia range. She is invariably the sweetheart and protagonist of the Greek hero Dighenis, the fabulous figure of Byzantine saga who has become more than ever established as the national hero of Cyprus since General Grivas was inspired to adopt his name (already being possessed of some of his ideals) in the EOKA struggles for freedom. The mythical Dighenis is notable for his heroic deeds usually achieved by slinging vast rocks from the mountains in defence of the Cyprus island at the time of the Arab raids of the seventh to tenth centuries B.C. These then, are the two folk images of Cyprus: Aphrodite the queen, symbol of the beautiful island itself, and Dighenis the warrior patriot, whose spirit has resisted thousands of years of occupation by foreign powers. Nothing is likely to disturb their deep influence on the people of Cyprus not even the adoption of Aphrodite as a brand image for many of the country's products.

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