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Thursday, 26 March 2015 09:26
Greece Says No To Racism
Greece marked the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination with a number of events over the weekend, across the country.
Thousands took to the streets this weekend with at least three separate events held in the Greek capital, and many more around the country.
A walk against discrimination in central Athens was organised by the Greek forum for migrants with the participations of many NGOs, civil society groups and migrant communities. The march was well attended, and culminated in the delivery of a letter to the Greek parliament which was co-signed by all the participating groups, laying out their demands on migration policy.
Banners included "Shut down the concentration camps", "Solidarity to refugees", "Citizenship for all the children". Greece's new government have pledged to close the 'closed hospitality centres' operated by previous governments where migrants were detained for up to 18 months, as well as to grant citizenship to migrants born and brought up in Greece.
To read more please visit: ThePressProject.
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Friday, 29 May 2015 07:00
The Greek Behind Bulgari
Sotirios Voulgaris (1857-1932) was the Greek creator of Bulgari, one of the world's most famous jewellery brands today. Born in the Greek village of Kalarites in March of 1857, Sotirios began his career as a jeweller in his home village of Paramythia (Epirus, Greece), his parents were George Voulgaris and Eleni Strougari. Of the eleven children of the family, Sotiris Voulgaris was the only one who survived and managed to continue the family tradition. The passion with jewellery started from his grandfather Constantine, who was a street vendor in the villages of Epirus. The talent to create jewellery was inherited by Sotiris, who along with his father opened a jewellery shop in Paramythia.
At that time, Paramythia and other villages in the region were facing problems from the Turks. Continuous burning of the village and serious damage to the shop, forced the Bulgari family to move to Corfu and then to Naples, Italy. In Naples, the family opened their first gold jewellery shop. The city crime posed a major problem for their valuable jewellery. So, after several burglaries, they were forced to close.
In 1881, Sotirios Voulgaris and his family moved to Rome. Three years later, in 1884, he founded his company and opened his second shop in Via Sistina. The store in Via Sistina was then replaced by the current flagship store in Via dei Condotti opened in 1905 by Bulgari with the help of his two sons, Constantino (1889–1973) and Giorgio (1890–1966).
After Giorgio's death in 1966, his son Gianni led the company as co-chief executive with his cousin Marina. As chairman and CEO of Bulgari in the early 1970s. Bulgari opened its first international locations in New York City, Paris, Geneva, and Monte Carlo in the 1970s.
To read more, please visit: Greek Getaway
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People
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Wednesday, 02 September 2015 07:00
Greece Forbids Monstanto's Genetically Modified Corn
Greece is enforcing its option of an opt-out law that is included in a U.S.-EU deal that allows the US mega grower access to European crops.
Under a law signed in March individual EU countries can seek exclusion from any approval request for genetically modified cultivation across the EU. Specifically, Monsanto sought approval to grow its MON810, a type of pest-resistant corn.
But Greece said no way.
The EU law allows member states to decide themselves, a stipulation that has angered the United States, which wants Europe to open its doors fully to American GM crops as part of a planned EU-U.S. free trade deal.
In a statement this week, the European Commission confirmed that so far only Latvia and Greece had asked for opt-outs from Monsanto’s request to grow their GM crops.
To read more, please visit: Pappas Post
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Monday, 03 January 2022 07:00
Epiphany In Greece
On the 6th of January, the Christmas season in Greece officially comes to an end with the 'festival of light' ('ton foton' in Greek), also known as Epiphany.
This feast day in the Greek Orthodox Church is known as 'Theophania' which means 'a vision of God' or 'Christ shining through'. It is considered a very important day for the Greek Orthodox Church. In the Western Church, it is also known as "Three Kings Day", a celebration of the 3 magi visiting baby Jesus.
This feast day in the Greek Orthodox Church is known as 'Theophania' which means 'a vision of God' or 'Christ shining through'. It is considered a very important day for the Greek Orthodox Church. In the Western Church, it is also known as "Three Kings Day", a celebration of the 3 magi visiting baby Jesus.
In the Greek Orthodox Church, Epiphany is celebrated as the revelation of Christ as the messiah and second person of the trinity, at his baptism, by John the Baptist, in the River Jordan. Another cause for celebration in the Greek Orthodox Church on this day is that Christ's baptism was only one of two occasions when all three persons of the trinity revealed themselves, at the same time, to humanity: God the Father, speaking from the clouds, God the Son, being baptized in the River Jordan, and God the Holy Spirit, revealed as a dove, descending from heaven.
On Epiphany, the Greek Orthodox Church performs the 'Great Blessing of the Waters'. This ceremony is usually performed twice, once on the eve of Epiphany which is performed in the church, and then again on the actual day outdoors with priests blessing large bodies of water, sea, rivers, lakes etc.
The tradition is that a priest, surrounded by brave young men and boys, throws a cross into the sea, either from the harbour or from a boat at sea; the minute the cross leaves the priest’s hand, the divers jump into the freezing water to catch the cross. The lucky one who finds and returns the cross is blessed by the priest. As the cross is victoriously brought back, the priest releases a white dove, as a symbol of the holy spirit. This tradition is carried out to commemorate the baptism of Christ and to bless the waters.
The tradition is that a priest, surrounded by brave young men and boys, throws a cross into the sea, either from the harbour or from a boat at sea; the minute the cross leaves the priest’s hand, the divers jump into the freezing water to catch the cross. The lucky one who finds and returns the cross is blessed by the priest. As the cross is victoriously brought back, the priest releases a white dove, as a symbol of the holy spirit. This tradition is carried out to commemorate the baptism of Christ and to bless the waters.
To read this article in full, please visit: Greeker Than The Greeks
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Greek Traditions
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Wednesday, 09 March 2016 11:13
ReGeneration: Halting Greece's Brain Drain
In September 2012 two friends meet up on the rooftop of a building in New York. Panagiotis Madamopoulos-Moraris is in town for business and Nikos Koumettis is an already successful senior executive at The Coca-Cola Company. They are discussing the difficult circumstances in Greece and the high number of Greek scientists looking for work in the US. The two friends decide to do something to stop the brain drain in Greece. This is how ReGeneration was born – an initiative that aims to become the catalyst of internship culture in Greece.
ReGeneration is an initiative of the Global Shapers Athens Hub, a program of the World Economic Forum. As Spiros Milonas, ReGeneration’s project manager, explained, “Our aim is to give high-caliber young graduates with little or no work experience the opportunity to kick-start their career at a company in Greece, and in a job relevant to their studies and in a position that fits their personality.”
Designed by experts in human resources management, the program assists participants in discovering their capabilities and career path by combining academic background and talent through five stages. “This is how companies that participate in the program recruit the best minds and those who will evolve into the ideal business partner,” said Madamopoulos-Moraris, first curator of the Global Shapers Athens Hub.
ReGeneration is funded by The Hellenic Initiative (THI) and The Coca-Cola Company. The program’s success after just two years validates the “experiment,” Michael Printzos, program director at THI, told Kathimerini. He said that during 2014, the program’s first year, some 3,000 applications were received for positions at 21 participating companies, both Greek and multinational. A total of 55 paid internship positions were created and filled thanks to the program, and, at the end of the internship period, 80 percent of the interns renewed their contracts.
To read more, please visit: eKathimerini
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Local News
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Wednesday, 07 December 2016 02:35
November 15 - Faces Of Greece
Discover the many different faces of Greece from filmmakers to musicians to bloggers with these interesting articles and interviews!
Please click HERE to view this issue of our newsletter!
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Tuesday, 07 March 2017 07:00
Mayors Of Athens And Lesvos Included In 2016 World Mayor Honours List
Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis and Lesvos Mayor Spiros Galinos are among the 10 most outstanding mayors in the world, according to the results of the biennial World Mayor competition announced recently by the organizer of the City Mayors Foundation.
Mayors Kaminis and Galinos stood out for welcoming refugees and offering them safety, shelter and support in their cities.
According to the World Mayor website, Athens, Lesvos and Lampedusa (Italy) are the three Mediterranean communities in the World Mayor Honours List that must receive special recognition for the welcome they offered to tens of thousands of men, women and children who were fleeing the fighting in the Middle East or poverty in Africa.
To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Travel Pages
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Tuesday, 27 June 2017 07:00
Modern And Sustainable Schools On The Rise In Athens
Green roofs, harvested rainwater, floating stairs, photovoltaics, recycled water, soundproof doors and insulated floors are but some of the cutting-edge bioclimatic architecture technologies that have been introduced at 24 school buildings in Attica thanks to a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative.
“In Thiseio, we redeveloped neoclassical buildings that were being used as squats, while in Keratsini we transformed the old Armenian steam bath into an arts high school,” says Nikos Mantzoufas, the Finance Ministry’s special secretary for PPPs. “We gave students a modern teaching environment, whereas before they had classes in prefabricated structures.”
The projects are also expected to boost property values in the schools’ broader vicinities, while a number of parents have expressed an interest in transferring their children from private schools to these public institutions.
To read this article in full, please visit: Ekathimerini
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Monday, 18 June 2018 07:00
The Premier Of Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2018
The Athens & Epidaurus Festival recently premiered on June 1st with three brilliant performances at Peiraios 260 and the Athens Concert Hall. Performances included Ivo van Hove's masterpiece 'After the Rehearsal-Persona,' a stage adaptation of two Ingmar Bergman classics.
The festival will run through August 2018. Below is this year’s Festival trailer, which was directed by the distinguished Pericles Hoursoglou. It is visually conceived as a series of thousands of footsteps, which is meant to portray the thousands of spectators rushing to the ancient and contemporary theatre venues from 1955 to our times.
This year at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, all performances will have English and Greek subtitles for the first time, accommodating Greek and foreign audiences alike, as well as for the hearing impaired.
What is the Athens & Epidaurus Festival?
It is Greece’s foremost cultural festival and one of the oldest performing arts festivals in Europe (1955). Each year, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival presents performances from acclaimed artists in theatre, dance, and music and attracts large audiences from around the world.
Please click HERE to view the Athens Festival program!
Venues of the Athens Festival
Odeon of Herodes Atticus - The Festival’s main performance venue, located at the foot of the Acropolis.
Peiraios 260 - A former industrial area of several buildings just off Athens’ centre, at Peiraios 260 str.
Opening to the City - Launched in 2017, this section is more of a concept than an actual venue. Site-specific performances are presented in various neighbourhoods of Athens and Piraeus, including outdoor spaces and archaeological sites, thus expanding the Festival’s scope and audience and encouraging spectators’ active engagement.
Other venues include EMST, Megaron, Epidaurus Theater, Little Theater of Ancient Epidaurus, Ancient Stadium of Epidaurus, Odeon of Herodes, Benaki Museum, National Acheological Museum, Benizelos Mansion, the Athens Conservatory and more.
Other venues include EMST, Megaron, Epidaurus Theater, Little Theater of Ancient Epidaurus, Ancient Stadium of Epidaurus, Odeon of Herodes, Benaki Museum, National Acheological Museum, Benizelos Mansion, the Athens Conservatory and more.
For more information, please visit: Greek Festival
Photo Credit: Athens Festival
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Friday, 30 November 2018 20:29
October 30th - Explore More In Greece
Who would have thought that the most travelled person in the world is Greek? Well read all about the man who has travelled to both the freezing North and South Pole. And since we're talking about cold, let us guide you to the best Skiing destinations in Greece!
Please click HERE to view this issue of our newsletter!
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Newsletters
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