Gergő in Greece

Bulgárföldi Általános Iskola, Miskolc, Hungary

One day students learned about other nations’ carnival traditions, in Gergő's, a Hungarian boy's class. Gergő fell asleep at the class. When he woke up, he found himself in a strange place. He looked in the mirror and saw a young man.

He looked in the mirror and saw a young man. He looked out the window and saw that he was in Greece.

His friends came and said,

- Come on, bride!

He said:

- Don't you see I'm a man?

-Don't be silly, there's a carnival,- they said.

He dressed in a traditional Greek costume that lasted a long time. Skirts, belts, blouses. He wore a white mask with red cheeks and mouth.

His friends wore a similar mask, with white stockings and a coin vest. They were Mpoules.

They walked along a certain route, dancing, and having fun.

He woke up in the break and realized that he had only dreamed of it.

The Winter has Gone

(The mask: the Croatian Zvončari)

Inspired by Antonija Trgovac, Croatia

Once there was a country with the eternal freezing cold winter. So, it was difficult for people to live because there was no harvest and not much food left. However, one day, a strange tall man came to the country who decided to help and whip out this cruel winter.

Actually, he thought for a long time how to move ‘her’ away. And finally, an idea came to his head about creating the masks that would frighten the winter.

In the end, people organised the carnival dressing in those created ugly Zvončari masks. And guess what? After a few days there was EVEN no smell of the winter.

Drawing by Orinta,

6b grade

Drawing by Kornelija,

6b grade

Between

Sun and Moon

( inspired by the Greek mask of the Ornithes, presented by Angela Florou)

Como Rebbio Primary School, ITALY

Once upon a time there was a flock of birds that lived on top of a Thracian mountain. They were mighty and colorful birds, large and small, brave and adventurous, with the spirit of a thousand warriors.

The birds spent their days flying over the snowy peaks, singing carefree together with their king and queen.

The queen had colorful feathers and a long golden tail. When she sang, all the birds were silent.

Her name was Agape.

One day King Alcide was captured by a farmer who wanted to eat it roasted.

Agape and the other birds were desperate. They decided to climb Mount Olympus to ask the gods for help. They found out that the farmer was actually Athena, who was envious of the birds' voice.

To save their king, the birds challenged the gods to chess.

Agape won thanks to her cunning and then Zeus ordered Athena to free King Alcide.

Zeus decided that he would make a special gift to Agape: with her song she would raise the sun and moon.

Agape was a generous queen and decided to share the gift with all her subjects.

And so the birds of the snowy peaks of Thrace built their kingdom between Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon.

Once upon a time some villagers in Hungary lived in a beautiful forest.

Carnival time was coming and they would do their tradition of wearing masks and having a big parade .

And so, Tuesday arrived which was the day of the Carnival.  Everyone wore their costumes which were out of sheepskin and the masks were from the head of a ram with large horns.  They hung bells around their waist and were ready for the parade.

Then an angel came down from the sky and told them to go and chase the Turks away from their village where they had taken over and something needed to be done.  So, as soon as the angel told them, they took their guns and started walking down the road.

The bells went quiet in all the village and the villagers banged their guns to make  a lot of noise to scare the Turks so they would leave. When they arrived the Turks got scared and left.

On Wednesday, because they weren’t able to do the parade the previous day, they did it and everyone danced.The Hungarians with their costumes and their children, for the first time, they danced from happiness because they had chased the Turks out of their village which his never happened before.

On Thursday, everyone heard a loud sound coming from far away and that’s how they understood that is was the Turks because they had been chased out of the village and were angry.

Most of the people of the village panicked but the ones in costume continued the and ran and took their guns to kill them.The Turks started a war in order to capture and conquer them and use them as slaves. On the other side the Hungarians didn’t give up, they started fighting against the Turks until they reached a point where most of the Turks got killed and the rest run away leaving their munition behind.

After the feast, because they were so happy, they all decided of their own free will they would again have a parade with loud music and dance the dances from their countries.

Few days passed by, when one morning, a little by showed up at their village. He was very young and looked dirty and exhausted.

When they saw it they covered it with a blanket and asked the little boy his name but he didn’t answer.  After a little while they asked him again and he said very shyly Apostolis and then he fainted.  In this way they took him quickly into a room to lay down and get used to this place. 

As soon as he woke up a man came to see the little boy and to ask him who he was. 

Apostolis answered that he was from India and so they said they would keep him.  The child was very happy and slowly he got used to it.  Apostolis grew up into a young man.

.. Until the day of the Carnival and their traditions came again .  They wore their costumes and bells and had a parade.  In that w ay every year they honored the dead and also the arrival of Apostolis to their village.  Finally, all’s well that ends well. 

Winter will soon 

be gone...

A tale inspired by Zvoncari , a traditional Croatian mask presented by Danijela Sajtar

6th Primary School of Artemis Greece

While the inhabitants of Croatia were tolerating the cold winter nights,

one day a group of people decided to make a mask, through which the people living there would raise their voices and terrify the mighty winter ...

Drawing by Irida 6th Grade

And so, it was done.

All the locals decided to organize

 a celebration where they would wear their masks and walk around the streets shouting loud to scare the winter.

But let's take it from the beginning ...

Drawing by Konstantina 6th Grade

When I was young, my family and I lived in a small but cosy home. In the summer, my siblings and I used to play carefree in the backyard of our house that was lush with grass.

Drawing by Giannis 6th Grade

But in the winter, the house became very cold because there was no heating. Only the rich could afford this, as it was so costly.

The whole village then decided to make a mask with a garment they would wear on February 28th to drive the winter away.

Drawing by Giannis 6th Grade

The uniform was comprised of a mask in the form of a goat and bells worn around the waist.

With the help of the bells and the villager’s loud voices, winter would soon be gone ...

Drawing by Taxiarhis 6th grade

This story was written by

Irida Christodoulidi, Giannis Lambrakis, Dimitris Samaropoulos and

Giannis Chrisanthopoulos, 6th graders

from 6th Primary School of Artemis Greece

Students of 4th Grade (D1, D2) of Ipsonas 1 Primary School, Cyprus have inspired from the Soho mask in Greece (Pallini 3rd) and create their story.

The colorful shoes

Once upon a time a boy decided to go in the carnival parade which was taking place in his village. He wore a HUGE mask of Soho and a long colorful dress. He wanted to share happiness with all the people in the parade. He strewed his mustache and started thinking that he had no shoes to wear.

That was a problem!