excerpt
One day, his mother asked him whether he wanted to go with
his cousin to a baptism. He agreed. He liked the idea of attending
such a celebration, which he hadn’t attended for a long time.
The next day at noon, they started off travelling for almost two
hours by bus to another village. The baptism ceremony took place in
the local church. After that, they went to the house that belonged to
the family of the newly baptized child for the celebration. When they
arrived, they were led to a long table in the garden underneath the
grapevine arbour. The roasted lamb was placed in the middle of the
table and was surrounded by a variety of dishes—rice, salads, wine,
bread, cheese pies, spinach pies, sweet pies, and fruits—a big spread.
Everyone ate with a good appetite and drank plenty of wine.
Hermes felt as if he was back in time. He felt a bit dizzy, but he
kept drinking along with the others every time someone proposed a
toast, and they proposed many toasts and many glasses of wine were
consumed, which naturally brought a joyous fervour to everyone.
Then the singing started: “A thousand joys may come to the
house of our friend . . .” the visiting group sang
Then the host and his relatives answered in the Same tune:
“And a thousand welcomes to our friends in our home . . .”
They continued to sing the traditional songs: one person
started with a verse, all the rest repeated, then the first person started
a second verse and so on. This, of course, required great attention as
those who repeated should not make any mistake and carry on from
where the first person stopped. It was unforgivable to ruin the continuation
of the song. But the people knew this tradition well, and
they kept on singing for a long time. Then two musicians arrived.
They sat by the table for a short while, ate a few appetizers, drank a
few glasses of wine, and then the dancing started.
Hermes’ cousin Anthony was the one the villagers called
Rifakas, and he was the best dancer in the area. He led the guests in
dancing. They began with a fast syrtos that was a characteristic dance
of the area.
“To your health, Rifakas,” the godfather called out.
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