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Ώρα καλή σου Πασχαλιά
God speed you now, o Easter Day, may you be back again
as you leave us may you find us, or else in better shape.
All is well this present time, who knows how things will be,
shall we be living or be dead, and in that other place?
God speed you now, o Easter Day, may you be back again
Translated by John Leatham
ν-Ώρα καλή, ν-ώρα καλή, ν-ώρα καλή σου Πασχαλιά
ν-ώρα καλή σου Πασχαλιά κι πίσου να γυρίσεις
κι πίσου να γυρίσεις
όπως μας άφ’σις να μας βρεις κι ακόμα κι καλύτιρα.
Τούτουν τουν χρόνου τουν καλόν,
τουν άλλουν ποιος του ξέρει
για ζούμι, για πιθαίνουμι, για σ’ άλλον τόπου πάμι.
ν-Ώρα καλή σου Πασχαλιά κι πίσου να γυρίσεις.
On the Friday of Easter Week, dedicated to the Virgin Fount of Life, a general community feast is held in the village square at the end of which the andromàna (literally ‘mother of men’, a tableau vivant) is constructed.
Six men arrange themselves in a closed circle holding each other by the shoulders onto which there climb another six men similarly supporting one another. Three more climb upon the shoulders of these last, thus forming a pyramid of three tiers. While the andromàna is being formed, the onlookers begin to sing and to dance to the song ‘An Easter send-off ’. According to local opinion the custom is observed ‘to strengthen the ears of corn’. With this in mind, we might interpret the threetiered tableau as an attempt by the inhabitants of Deskati to achieve a heightened performance of the two-tiered dances, if its effects on fertility are to be all the greater. Zoe Margari (1998)
Recorded in April 1996 in Deskati, Grevena.
Choir
