We feel the city vibes. Follow us!

CRETAZINE

© 2012 CRETAZINE,
All Rights Reserved

All articles and photos published in CRETAZINE is available to visitors strictly for personal use. It is not permissible to reproduce or retransmit in any manner or to any extent whatsoever any part of this web site, with or without editing, without the written permission of the publisher.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

  • After the abduction, the party starts!After the abduction, the party starts!© Stella Melina Vassilaki
Crete as we Live it

Bride kidnapping in Melidoni

Melidoni, Clean Monday. The Bride kidnapping is one of the many wedding parodies that take place during the carnival, a custom with a long history. The ancient roots of the custom start with the 'wedding of Dionysus' and the celebrations in his honor (anthesteria) and reach the Ottoman period and the abduction of the bride by the Turks!

melidoni3

*"Clean Monday" is the last celebration day of the carnival and marks the beginning of the lent, until Easter 

Photos: Stella Melina Vassilaki

Send your own snapshot here