"I make raki* of 19 degrees by boiling it twice. It is strong and doesn't get white like ouzo when you mix it with water. Raki with anise is also very tasty. I serve these drinks to my few customers along with roasted chickpeas, boiled cabbage and canned fish".
The residents are getting fewer
Elias Kallias, the grocer from Messenichola of Karditsa, keeps his store open more because he wants to socialise, rather than to earn money. "Our income is trivial, we're just getting by. The threads have been left unsold for years; women nowadays have neither the time nor the inclination to embroider".
Messenicholas's high school has a small number of students and teachers because the students are getting fewer by the year. In the village, there are a lot of single men, because the girls have moved to the cities. Since children can't just pop up, the village is in danger of vanishing. In 2005, during the last population count, only 205 people were left in the village, down from 2,000 in 1970.
They don't forget their village
The people of mountainous Karditsa, who left their villages in search of work, never forget their homeland, especially during holidays."The travellers always spend the Assumption's day here. On the last Sunday of July, the whole village walks to the Korona's monastery, which is a couple of kilometres from here, in order to transfer the icon of Holy Mary. We keep it in Messenicholas until the 15th of August and then we give it to the neighbouring village Morfovouni, where it stays until the end of August".
Once, the residents of Morfovouni had wanted to take the icon first, but as Mr. Elias says: "It was heavy and they couldn’t lift it. When we arrived, the icon was light as a feather. If our village keeps getting deserted, who will be left to make rakes and take the icon from Korona's monastery?".
*Raki is an unsweetened, sometimes anise-flavored, alcoholic drink popular in Greece and Turkey.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com
MORE PHOTOS
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens houses the new Greek National Opera since 2017. This is an unsurpassed work of art of minimalist style, for which all Greeks are proud.
Next to the ancient Greek theater of Mantineia in Arcadia is located Saint Fotini. It is a building that combines ancient Greek and Christian influences. Many great names in art were flattered about this church, but many also strongly disputed it.
A exciting tour in Constantinople to investigate credible information regarding the burial ground of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaiologos. The information we gathered is astounding!
Access is not allowed in Vidronisi, as it is full of wild birds' eggs and chicks.
Egrikapi is a neglected gate of the Byzantine castle of Constantinople. At the dawn of 29th May 1453, a group of Turkish soldiers entered the castle through it and broke the city's defense from within.
The state-of-the-art spaces of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Culture Center in Athens were flooded with visitors from Greece and abroad who attended the Nostos 2023 international conference on Mental Health.
The image of the armoured soldiers into the islet's voluminous vegetation is impressive. They jokingly tell each other: "Let's go on patrol in Vietnam".
He pulled the anchor of the Italian flagship out of the bottom of the Aegean Sea without a diving suit, the Italians thought he had drowned, when he came up to the surface his ear was bleeding.