In the winter garden of Aristea December 2015

Up the street called Romanou Melodou (the Greek spelling can be seen on the poster), quite a steep slope since going up to Lycabettou hill, there is this magic shop of Aristea. Every year her Christmas Bazar is a special gift to all her friends and former, current and potentially future customers. For she specializes in making decorations for weddings and baptizations. She adds always a special flavour to everything she does, touches and communicates through the objects she handles. They integrate many things and reveal a richness of Greek heritage all too often unknown to outsiders.

The branches with 'seeing eyes' reminds of still strong beliefs that they shall keep away bad spirits. In the tray beside the kind of street vendor, there can be found special stones and small crosses made out of cinnamon sticks. Already a special sense of smell emerges out of her shop and spills out into the street.

A light stream as if running water down like a radiant snake

with modern civilisation not far behind: the motor bike.

Is it Patriotism or a religious custom to display the Greek flag?

A look at the type of houses reveals a certain philosophy behind the architecture which went up when Greece was heading still towards affluency. The classical one storey buildings vanished and instead high rise (for Athenia standards) apartments went up. With it came an anonymity felt when neighbors no longer know each other and therefore no longer greet the other when passing by. Aristea keeps by contrast the local level alive with her shop. Often things are being prepared in front of her shop, but more so deep inside and in the back yard as shall be shown later below.

The extent to which a dress serves the purpose of displaying all kinds of jewels means that her customers are of the wealthy kind. Lately she did the wedding decoration to that famous equally outspoken speaker of the Greek Parliament when Syriza came into power. She lasted only until the second elections were held on September 20th. Since that shows even the Left cannot escape certain powerful myth making traditions prevailing in Greek society, the question is what can be made out of these authentic touches when just the house seen behind belongs to a single mother with two grown up children and who prefers to live abroad rather than in Greece. Thus the story of the neighborhood reveals many different attitudes not at all accounted for when some outsider makes a general picture of Greece as if this is evidence of the typical. The typical is left outside of reality which is lived and alive. Aristea overcame, for instance, cancer and survived. She has been always a hard and tough fighter for life. Alone when one thinks what she went through with her two daughers while also a single mother, that can astonish anyone once the real story is known. No wonder, Aristea comes from Crete and often I would see her coming back from a long walk around Lycabettou Hill or from swimming even when it was cold outside. There is an intricate link to nature. It makes for more than one single approach to life itself.

Weddings in Greece are not any different from other countries. It is the time to show something to the relatives. Also the richness in decoration reveals also the wish to underline that this should be a special occasion when two people get married. Naturally in the traditional form this is meant to be a man and a woman with children soon to follow. However, in modern times the term couple has changed and one wonders where will that leave the so called Romantic notion of love or what has been portrayed repeatedly by Hollywood when depicting a girl not wishing anything else but to get married. But caution should prevail here. For any woman it matters what status she has in society as a result of not only her family, but also whom she marries. There are many different choices available but which ones are made in the final end to tie the knot, that depends not merely on typical socialization patterns but as well on a desire to break out of the typical. Only the atypical cannot be attained if there is not added some of the special gifts Aristea can make, and as explained already, this is the Myth of Love!

The pearls in the hair relates to the two rings which are tied together by a ribbon. During the wedding ceremony they are held above the heads of the two to be married. And then they are exchanged three times while being held together by the ribbon. It shows in addition to the wedding vow that a connection is made as part of the ceremony. After that the couple gets to drink very good red wine.