Social Dimensions of Immigration in the past

     It is an undeniable fact that Asia Minor Catastrophe is considered one of the most devastating catastrophes of Hellenism throughout the ages.

Immigrants' Customs of the 20th Century in Greece

Customs vary depending on the area the immigrants/refugees came from. According to the races they came in touch with and the geomorphology of the land they dwelled in, they established their customs. Many of those are directly connected to religion, while others are about nature.

CARNIVAL

For the Minor Asians, the carnival meant reversal of roles and social order. Men dressed up as women and women as men, the old as young and vice versa. People used their imagination to masquerade themselves, in order to cause laughter.

The masqueraded were named "Koudounati" (kou-dou-na'-ti, meaning 'with bells'), a name that had nothing to do with their costumes. The name originates from the old times, back when the masquaraded people necessarily had to wear bells with their costume.

Their costumes were handmade, crafted with any piece of clothing found at home. They usually painted their face, hands and feet with charcoal, while instead of masks vegetables of various shapes and sizes were used.

The Carnival custom was also brought to Greece by refugees of Western Thrace, with some peculiar differences. For the Western Thracians, the name "Koudounati" was literal. Men dressed up with women's clothing and sheep's hide. Above all those layers, they hanged large bells, while they also painted their face with charcoal and carried wooden rods.

The masqueraded men walked around the streets, moving their body rythmically and jumping so the bells would ring. This weird procession was done to ward evil and bad luck away from the houses.

Procession around the village

Seperated in groups, they visited the houses one by one. Half of them knocked on the doors. The occupants came out to greet them and mock them for their silly appearance. The "Koudounati" responded to the teasing by pretending to beat people with their rods. The housewives offered them flour, which the "Koudounati" launched up in the air, a symbolism for the crops to grow high. The other half men of the masquaraded group sneaked off to the houses' chicken coops to steal eggs. Aware of their sneaky act, each family made the younger members stand guard to the coops.

JAMALA

The word "Jamala" (Ja-ma'-la) originates from the arabic word "jamal", that means camel. According to this Thracian custom, the Jamala was a handmade wooden animal that resembled a camel (ergo the name), about 3m tall. It took place right after the sowing, in autumn. It was done to bring luck to the crops, but also as a celebration of the previous harvest.

After the Thracians built a wooden skeleton that looked like a camel, they added a head and tail, wrapping it up in sheep's hide and rags. For the finishing, it was decorated with carpets and colorful beads. Four men hid underneath, carrying it on their shoulders so it looked like the camel was walking on its own.

The other people escorting the Jamala wore weird costumes and wreaths made of grape leaves. They paraded with the fake camel and they gave wishes to the residents, while offering pomegranates and walnuts to passerbys, symbols of fertility.

The custom of  Jamala is relived even today in some Thracian villages.

AROMANIAN WEDDING

For the older generatios of North Epirus (Aromanians) the wedding was one of the most important ceremonies, since beyond the joyous union of two young people, it presented the chance for a feast. The wedding lasted a week and its preparation was full of symbolic demonstrations. Those were intended to ward off evil and ensure good luck and fertility for the newlyweds. 

The Thursday before the wedding, the families of the couple did a custom called "prozimia" (pro-zi'-mja), meaning sourdough. Each family invited their relatives, friends and neighbors to their house. There, they put a boy and a girl that weren't orphaned to make sourdough. The two children were a symbolism for the couple to have both boys and girls. The sourdough would be used later by the housewives for the baking of bread, that the families exchanged at the day of the wedding.

"Prozimia"

The wedding always took place on a Sunday. In the morning, the groom's friends gathered up at his house to shave him. One by one they took hold of the blade and shaved him, giving him wishes for the wedding.

The shaving of the groom

After that, the dressed up the groom. Meanwhile at the bride's house, her friends and relatives dressed her up with the traditional wedding costume, singing songs to her.

The traditional wedding costume of the Aromanians

The sewing and decorating of the "Flaburo" (fla'-bu-ro) followed at the grooms house. It was the flag and symbol of the wedding. It was made by reeds tied in a cross shape. On the reed skeleton, a white cloth was sewn, embroidered with the chiristianic cross. Flowers, ribbons and apples were added as decoration afterwards, symbols of the fertility and new life of the newlyweds.

The Flaburo

After the Flaburo was ready, the wedding party made for the church. The families met each other on the road and mixed together. The flaburo was passed over to the groomsman, who walked in the front.

When the wedding ceremony was over at the church, the bride was taken for the first time to her husband's home, where her mother-in-law awaited for her arrival. Before entering, her mother-in-law laid a white carpet for her to step on, so her new life could be pure like the color white.

Finally, the next day all the friends and relatives visited the groom's house to dance and feast.

The immigrants of North Epirus maintain even to this day the custom of the Flaburo and the prozimia, which make their weddings special.

MOMOGERI

This custom originates from Georgia. It was a street event using symbolism, which took place in Pontos and countries of the former Soviet Union on Christmas Eve. In this festival, the whole village participated.

The "Momogeri" (Mo-mo'-ge-ri) were seven figures impersonated by the men of the village. These figures were: the "akros" (bear), symbolising power, the "graia" (old lady) symbolising the past, the "bride" symbolising the future, the "horse" as a symbol of development, the "doctor", symbolising good health, the "soldier" which symbolised defence, the "goat" as a symbol of food and finally "Father Christmas" as the symbol of the forthcoming year.

These figures went around the village with the escort of musicians and villagers and put up various plays. For example, the bear pretended to die and the rest of the figures went to mourn it. Then the doctor appeared, giving to the bear medicine and reviving her.

Meanwhile, the figures approached someone from the crowd while dancing and would not let them go until he was given some money. If he wasn't given any, he smeared the person's face with "pasti kan" (pas-ti' kan, meaning dirty yogurt). Often one of the seven figures was paid to smear someone's face with "pasti-kan" upon request. In that case, there was nothing the person could do to avoid being smeared.

The custom lasted for many hours because they had to go door to door throughout the whole village. It was completed with a feast using the money the figures had previously collected. For the inhabitants this custom symbolised good fortune and accompanied the best wishes for the New Year.

Crossing Borders: Immigration and Greek Culture of the 20th Century

POPULATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY
https://www.lifo.gr/articles/archaeology_articles/124647/to-trayma-toy-kserizomoy-i-mikra-asia-to-1922-kai-i-prosfygia-stis-texnes-kai-sta-grammata


For Greece the flames of Smyrna and the horror drama of the uprooted Greeks of Ionia will mark the final condemnation of the Utopian "Great Idea". Some artists have experienced the tragedy of the Asia Minor Catastrophe experientially.

FOTIS KONTOGLOY

Fotis Kontoglou (1896-1965) from Aivali,TURKEY saw his homeland be lost along with the eternal fires of Hellenism on the coast of Asia Minor.His friend Spyros Papaloukas, who had followed the campaign as a war painter, saw the rich harvest of his works disappear in the flames of burnt Izmir. The following year, in 1923, Papaloukas departs with another Asia Minor, the literate Stratis Duke, for Mount Athos, where they will spend a whole year practicing and studying Byzantium and the unique nature of Athos.

Fotis Kontoglou will briefly rejoin them in this purifying pilgrimage, which was expected to open new horizons for the Greek intelligentsia and the orientations of art. It is a period of intense spiritual fermentation and processes that will bear fruit over the next decade and seal the artistic creation of the so-called "Thirty Generation".In fact,the"heretical" painters of the renewed tendencies of the past decade are now becoming the protagonists of artistic life,and perhaps,for the first time,they have been officially supported by progressive government

DIAMADIS DIAMADOPOULOS

 

Diamantis Diamantopoulos was a pioneer and unique in the style of the Greek painter of the interwar generation.Diamantis Diamantopoulos was born in Magnesia, Asia Minor. His family, after the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922, settled in Athens. From a young age he showed his artistic talent by publishing and exhibiting many of his works.Since 1929 he has been publishing sketches in Children's Creation, which he signed under the pseudonym "Akamas". In 1930, he presented in the Athenian Hall of Artistic Ateliers the cubist style, which drew the attention. In 1931, he also exhibited"Asylum of Art".


From 1931 to 1936, she studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, with teachers Dimitris Biskini and Constantine Parthenis.At the same time he treveled to Greece to study Byzantine and folk art and made scenes for the theatrical play Alkistis played at the charles Koun Folk Stage.In 1940 he presented his works at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.In 1947 he participated in a group exhibition held in the Rhombus room along with many other well-kown colleagues.In 1950 he decided to isolate himself in his studio house in Daphne , to devote himself exclusively to his work but also to stop exhibition and sellinh his works because he disagreed with the commercialization of art. His silence was interrupted only in 1964 wnen he participated in a large group exhibition in Cyprus with a single work he had already exhibited at the Rhombus Hall in 1947.

GIORGOS SIKELIOTIS

He was born in Izmir Asia Minor .In 1922 with the Asia Minor disaster he came to Athens and settled with his family in Caesarea.He studied in Fine Arts School of the National Technical university of Athens from 1935 to 1940 where he has professor Constadinos Parthenis and Spyridon Vicatos.In 1940 he joined Albanian front.During the occupation with his work , he  captured the pulse of the era mainly through the drawings and engravings,contributing to the struggle of the people of art and letters against the conquerors.In 1949 he became a member of the artistic group "Stathmi" which developed a rich artistic activity.Until his first solo exhibition (1954),he participated in several group exhibitions in Greece.In 1954 he organized his first solo exhibition in Athens ,with 80 works,in the room of newspaper "To Vima" while in 1957 while he participated in the Alexandria Biennale.In 1960 the Greek Committee of the International Union of Art Critics selected him as a nominee for the New York Guggenheim Museum International prize for his works "Girls with Doves" .During the period 1975 -1983 he organized more than 25 solo "Art Decentralization" exhibitions in collaboration with the Municipalities,Local Cultural Institutions ans the Panhellenic Culturak Movement, as he called them, in order to disseminate Art to the inhabitants of the various provincial cities of the region Greece.

Music of immigrants of the 20th century

The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music, with more eastern sounds. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originated in the Byzantine period and Greek antiquity; there is a continuous development which appears in the language, the rhythm, the structure and the melody. Music is a significant aspect of Hellenic culture, both within Greece and in the diaspora.

Thrace

Thracians immigrated from the lands after the West of Istanbul and before the river named Evros, due to population exchanges with the Ottoman Empire. They settled in today's northeast Greece, and brought with them their unique music and dancing tradition.

Their traditional music instruments were the gaida (Balkan bagpipes), the kaval (a type of flute), the Thracian lyre (a three-stringed, pear-shaped instrument) and the davul (large drum). 

A group of Thracian musicians. (Left to right) Thracian lyre, gaida, kaval and davul.

These instruments were escorted by thracian traditional dances. Playing music and dancing was the most common entertainment for the Thracian immigrants, and happened in every feast and celebration. The lyrics to every song were usually about everyday topics and chores, a great deed accomplished, love and death. It was common to draw lyrics from myths and legends as well. Even though the dances held the same name and steps, each village had a different variation of it. The most common of them were the Zonaradikos, Sirtos Sigathistos, Chasapia and Baiduska.

Women dancing 'Zonaradikos'. You can see the intricate way they intertwine their hands, which gives the name to the dance
(Zonaradikos: to hold someone from the belt)

A very famous Zonaradikos song is "Niko mou sevasmene". It talks about a sick man, who is lying in bed. Once they tell him it's time to celebrate and that a feast is being prepared, he immediately asks them to raise him from the bed, and give him his gaida to play.

Another dance known and danced all across Greece is the Syrtos. It was the first one danced in every feast, especially in weddings, where the bridesgroom led the circle of dancers.

Pontos

The cities in the coasts of northern Turkey (after Istanbul and until the mountain Caucasus) that faced the black sea is where the race of the Pontians come from. The Pontian Genocide from the Turks was the cause of their runaway in 1923. They became inhabitants if many and different regions, which is why their music is so wide-spread across Greece.


The main Pontian instruments were the Pontian Lyre (long-shaped, three-stringed instrument), also known as kemence (from the turkish word "keman" = violin) and the Τaul (large drum, the same as the Thracian Davul). However, there were other, less common instruments, such as the Zurna (wind instrument, larger than a flute that produces a peculiar sound), and the Tulum (bagpipes with less openings and tubes).

Famous Pontian Lyre player, Matthew Tsachouridis.

In the Pontian songs, we hear about love, the deeds of their race and the perish it went through. The Pontians also sing songs where they talk about the beauty of life, the pains one goes through and, of course, the persecution from their country.

One of these songs is 'Tin patrida m' echasa' (I lost my homeland). It is an exeptionally moving song, since it talks with pain about the destruction of Pontos.

Minor Asia

Along with the Pontians, the Christians living in the western coast of Minor Asia and Istanbul came to Greece, bringing along their unique musical traits. The Minor Asian music is deeply affected by Middle Eastern sound. Therefore, the instruements we come across in this type of music is the 'Lauto' (stringed, gutar-like instruement that is large and pear-shaped), the 'Outi' (not alike the Lauto in construction, it is often found in arabian music), the 'Bendir' (large and round percussion instruement, very popular across the middle east) and finally the Lyre of Constantinople (small pear-shaped instruement), that gives off sweet tones and colors the music beautifully.

Socrates Sinopoulos, well-known Minor Asian musician. He is an expert on the Lyre of Constantinople.

Minor Asian music is rich in hues: it changes from slow to fast, consisting of group dances which demant uniformity and synchronization. While dancing, people often use objects like handkerchiefs, or spoons and small glasses, which they strike rythmically against each other.

Woman carving the shape of a Lyre. It is a difficult process that requires experience and finesse.

Minor Asian family. On the left you can see the Outi and to the right, the instruement Lauto.

A very famous Minor Asian song is 'Konyali', and the lyrics are in Turkish.

Rebetiko

Rebetiko was initially associated with the lower and poor classes, but later reached greater general acceptance as the rough edges of its overt subcultural character were softened and polished. Rebetiko probably originated in the music of the larger Greek cities, most of them coastal, in today's Greece and Asia Minor. Emerged by the 1920s as the urban folk music of Greek society's outcasts. The earliest Greek rebetiko singers (refugees, drug-users, criminals and itinerants) were scorned by mainstream society. They sang heartrending tales of drug abuse, prison and violence, usually accompanied by the bouzouki.

In 1923, after the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, many ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor fled to Greece as a result of the Greco-Turkish War. They settled in poor neighborhoods in Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and Athens. Many of these immigrants were highly educated, such as songwriter Vangelis Papazoglou, and Panagiotis Toundas, composer and leader of Odeon Records' Greek subsidiary, who are traditionally considered as the founders of the Smyrna School of Rebetiko. Another tradition from Smyrna that came along with the Greek refugees was the tekés (τεκές) 'opium den', or hashish dens. Groups of men would sit in a circle, smoke hashish from a hookah, and improvise music of various kinds.

With the coming of the Metaxas dictatorship, rebetiko was suppressed due to the uncompromising lyrics. Hashish dens, baglamas and bouzouki were banned, or at least playing in the eastern-style manner and scales.

Some of the earliest legends of Greek music, such as the quartet of Anestis Delias, Markos Vamvakaris, Stratos Payioumtzis and Yiorgos Batis came out of this music scene. Vamvakaris became perhaps the first renowned rebetiko musician after the beginning of his solo career. Other popular rebetiko songwriters and singers of this period (1940s) include: Dimitris Gogos (better known as Bayandéras), Stelios Perpiniadis, Spyros Peristeris, Giannis Papaioannou, and Apostolos Hatzichristos.

The scene was soon popularized further by stars like Vassilis Tsitsanis. His song Συννεφιασμένη Κυριακή - Synnefiasméni Kyriakí became an anthem for the oppressed Greeks when it was composed in 1943 (during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II), despite the fact that it was not recorded until 1948. He was followed by female singers like Marika Ninou, Ioanna Yiorgakopoulou, and Sotiria Bellou. In 1953, Manolis Chiotis added a fourth pair of strings to the bouzouki, which allowed it to be played as a guitar and set the stage for the future 'electrification' of rebetiko. This final era of rebetiko (mid 1940s–1953) also featured the emergence of night clubs (κέντρα διασκεδάσεως) as a means of popularizing music.By the late 1950s, rebetiko had declined; it only survived in the form of archontorebetiko (αρχοντορεμπέτικο "posh rebetiko"), a refined style of rebetiko that was far more accepted by the upper class than the traditional form of the genre. The mainstream popularity of archontorebetiko paved the way for éntekhno and laïkó. In the 1960s Manolis Chiotis popularized the eight-string bouzouki and set the stage for the future 'electrification' of rebetiko.

Rebetiko in its original form was revived during the Junta of 1967–1974, when the Regime of the Colonels banned it. After the end of the Junta, many revival groups (and solo artists) appeared. The most notable of them include Opisthodhromiki Kompania, Rembetiki Kompania, Babis Tsertos, Agathonas Iakovidis and others.