Austerity measures have been bad for Greeks, but good for tourism, which shot up 28.8 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2014. Another beneficiary? Artists. Rent for studio space is significantly cheaper than in other European capitals, and the political and economic turmoil have provided plenty of artistic fodder — not to mention a frustrated, attentive audience. In the wake of these woes, artists, curators, critics and nonprofits are finding that contemporary art is having its moment in a city best known as the epicenter of the ancient world.

Iliana Fokianaki, an Athens-based curator and art critic, was considering a move to Paris in 2011 when businesses were shuttering, friends were losing their jobs and thousands took to the streets in protest. But rather than motivate her to head out of the country, this had the opposite effect. She stayed.

“I realized it would be much more useful to have an artistic platform in a city like Athens than another European city,” said Ms. Fokianaki, who in 2013 inaugurated State of Concept, a Greek nonprofit gallery that has a twofold mission to showcase artists through solo exhibitions and provide young graduates with free consultations. “The crisis kind of boosted our energy to do more things, rather than flee the country.”

To read more, please visit: New York Times

Serendipity Magazine explores artist expression. In this fifth issue, Serendipity explores how various media is utilized by artists. Inside you'll discover interviews with authors, artists and sculptors as well as a variety of interesting guest articles.

Click HERE to read this issue of Serendipity Magazine.

The Greek islands are famed throughout the world for their incredible beauty and relaxed lifestyle, but have you ever wondered how they got their names?

To find the etymology behind the names of Greek islands, we need to take a few different factors into account - things like spelling and grammar, but also Greek mythology and the geomorphology of each island. Here is how some of the Greek islands were named:

Cephalonia (Kefalonia)

The island got its name from the hero Cephalus, the island’s first ruler, an Athenian leader and son of Dionysus. Cephalus was exiled from Athens for committing murder and settled on the island.

Chios

The Greek island acquired its name from Chioni (snow), daughter of Poseidon. When she was born on the island it was snowing, and thus the island was named Chios. According to legend, the island used to be a desert. After the snowfall, the land became fertile.

Lefkada

Homer named this Greek island from the Greek word “lefkas” (which means white) because the soil used to be white.

Kos

The name derives from “kofos,” an island with many caves. The word “cave” also comes from the Greek word “kofos.”

Tinos

The island’s name comes from the Greek word “tanaos”, which means long and perfectly describes the island’s shape.

Ithaca

The name derives from the Greek word “ithys” meaning straight or long - the elongated island.

Zakynthos

The name comes from Zakynthos, son of King Dardanos of Troy. When the Trojan expedition ended, Zakynthos and his people fled from Troy and lived on the island.

Skiathos

The name derives from the word “skia” (meaning shade). Due to the large number of trees, the island is very shady. However, it is also said that it was given its name because it's located in the shade of Mount Athos.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Reporter

Men and women have often argued about what constitutes the perfect way to flirt. There are several cultures where flirting comes naturally while others appear to be more aggressive and go to extremes, often scaring off their potential dates.

Thrillist posted questions to Reddit and Quora users, asking them to share their extreme flirting stories and then used the statistical data to determine which countries flirt more aggressively.

Greece came first on Thrillist’s list, showing that the financial crisis and the country’s overall situation has not affected Greeks’ confidence levels. “Not only has Athens been named the world’s most flirtatious city, but Greece as a country was dubbed the most sexually active nation,” noted the website.

Furthermore, Thrillist added that according to Dr. Simon Hardy, author of the “The Greeks, Eroticism and Ourselves,” Greeks may have perfected their flirting skills in antiquity during the “ultra-sexual symposiums.”

To read more, and to find out which counties came in second, third and fourth, please visit: Greek Reporter

Let’s be honest! What are your first thoughts when planning your holidays?

Where will I stay, where will I eat, how the local life looks like and of course, how will I communicate!!

No worries, that’s all what Glossopolis provides you with!

Glossopolis is an e-learning platform providing Greek language courses for people who want to visit the place, speak the language of the locals instead of using some typical scholar phrases and wish to have a touch with the local element instead of visiting the touristic side of the place.

How we do that? When you sign in the platform you watch a map of a language city ‘’Glossopolis in Greek’’ and you just click on the places you wish to communicate in (hotels, taxis, restaurants, bars, etc). This gives immediate access to all the educational content teaching how to communicate (text, audios, grammar exercises, videos, cultural and linguistic tips) but there is also access to geolocated ads of local business Glossopolis cooperates with.

To read more, please visit: Family Goes Out

Greece, widely known for its ancient art and culture, is increasingly becoming a hub for creative and award-winning international talents in contemporary industrial design. Stimulating, cutting-edge industrial design in Greece portrays diversity, creative evolution, modernity and, most importantly, humour. These are ten of the best contemporary product designers from Greece.

Thanos Karampatsos and Christina Kotsilelou are the inspired, humorous minds behind Greece is for Lovers. Since 2006 they have been passionately designing, producing and promoting novel, high-quality products that put a decidedly irreverent spin on Hellenic heritage. Located under Acropolis in the historical centre of Athens, Greece is for Lovers stubbornly fight the stereotypes of what is widely thought to be Greek along with the idea that ‘Greek people tend to take their culture very seriously’. Combining some of Greece’s spiciest ingredients, such as humour, irony, nonchalance and extravagance, these objects introduce a fresh breeze into contemporary product design. Among their products, which are eye-catching, innovative but deeply rooted in Greek tradition, a brown leather skateboard that incorporates Greek-style sandals into the board unquestionably stands out.

The multi-award-winning designer Constantinos Hoursoglou founded his multi-disciplinary studio in Athens in 2002 and since 2007 he has been productively working in Geneva. Both his Royal College of Art education and professional experience in Athens, London and New York play a key role in his uncompromising effort to foresee the chaotic changes in the world, while designing avant-garde but useful products. With aesthetics, technology and ecology in the spotlight of his creative work, Constantinos Hoursoglou is known for choosing great materials and inventive manufacturing methods. CHD studio provides wide-ranging services, such as graphic and exhibition design and product design and development and has participated – among others – in the St. Etienne Design Biennale and Salone Satellite.

To read more, please viist: The Culture Trip

Christmas is the most important – and perhaps the most treasured – celebration of Christianity filled with joy and love. Countries around the world celebrate with different customs that have deep roots within history and tradition. In Greek tradition, there are a variety of similarities in the commemoration of the birth of Christ and Dionysus, thus between ancient and contemporary Greece.

In December, the ancient Greeks celebrated the birth of Dionysus, calling him “savior” and “divine infant.” According to Greek mythology, his mother, Semele, was a mortal woman and his father was Zeus, the king of all Gods. The priest of Dionysus held a pastoral staff as did the Good Shepherd. On December 30, ancient Greeks commemorated his rebirth.

The most well-known custom throughout the Christian world are the Christmas carols, songs dedicated to the occasion. Also in ancient Greece there were specific “carols” for the rebirth of Dionysus. Specifically, Homer — during his stay on the island of Samos, along with a group of children, composed carols. In ancient Greece, carols symbolized joy, wealth and peace, and the children sang the carols only in the homes of the rich. Children would go from house to house, holding an olive or a laurel branch adorned with wool (a symbol of health and beauty) and different kinds of fruits. The children brought the olive branch to their homes and hung it on the doors where it remained for the rest of the year.

A New Year’s cake, which since early Christian times has been called Vasilopita, or St. Basil’s cake, also resembles an ancient Greek custom, as ancient Greeks used to offer Gods a “festive bread” during rural festivals, such as the Thalysia or the Thesmophoria.

 

To learn more and view this article in full, please visit: Greek Reporter

When you think of Greek national pride, the first things that come to mind are the Greek flag and the national anthem.

The Greek national anthem, officially titled "Ymnos is tin Eleftherian" in Greek and the Hymn to Liberty in English, is a reminder not only of how far Greece has come since the Ottoman Empire was officially defeated, but also of the journey that the people took that ultimately led to their freedom.

 

The Anthem was written by the famed poet, Dionysios Solomos, in 1823. He was born and raised in Zayknthos, but his family were refugees from the island of Crete. As a member of a prominent wealthy family, Solomos was well educated, which eventually drove him to become a poet. Although he studied in Italy for several years, he eventually penned his poems in his native Greek language.

 

The Hymn to Liberty is one of Solomos' most inspiring works. The Greek Revolution began in 1821 and was happening just as he began his career as a poet. In addition to the revolution that finally ended the Ottoman occupation, it served as a source of inspiration for this poem. Solomos wanted to put into words his feelings about the struggles of the Greek people and the inevitability of the win.

To learn more, please visit: Greek Boston

Learning a new language is not always easy - especially Greek! When you relocate to a country where you don’t speak the language, it is always a good idea to try and learn the language or at least a few words. Here are some tips to make learning Greek just a bit easier!

1. Learn the alphabet and listen to people speaking. It is important to learn how to pronounce the letters in the alphabet and once you know this, you will have no trouble being understood or pronouncing words.

2. Learn basic grammar. Many language teachers plunge into grammar without teaching the simple basics or teaching a single word. Many people will agree that it is best to initially learn a few of the basic rules such as the ‘to be’ rule and focus on learning words and phrases - grammar will come later.

3. Read road signs. Practice your language skills by reading road signs. It is a great way to familiarize yourself with your surroundings but also to help you remember and recognize letters of the alphabet.

4. Read subtitles. Many tv shows and films on Greek TV are in English with Greek subtitles. Reading the Greek subtitles while listening to the film in English is an excellent way to learn new words.

5. Listen to Greek music. Greece has many genres of music from traditional to modern, listening to Greek music while you work or just having it on while you're at home will help you pick up new phrases, not to mention enjoying great songs!

6. Talk with the locals. Not only is this a great way to integrate and meet people in your local community, but practicing speaking Greek is probably the greatest way to learn the lingo. Spending some of your day interacting with people you meet at shops, on the street or on the bus, will help you learn pronunciation, word order, grammar, and everyday phrases.

Learning Greek can be fun ~ enjoy!!

To read more tips, please visit: GreekReporter

Worn by the emblematic Greek Evzones, the foustanella has come to be understood as a symbol of valiance, bravery and resistance.

The history of the skirt-like garment has been written by the klephts (the brigands of the mountains), and the armatoloi (irregular soldiers commissioned by the Ottomans to enforce the Sultan’s authority), who later formed the nucleus of the Greek fighting forces during the War of Independence against the Turks. The garment was worn by the Greek soldiers of the 1st Regiment Greek Light Infantry in British service (1810-1812), by the soldiers (mostly from Mani or Roumeli) of the Light Infantry (1837-1838), by the Greek legion in the 1853-1856 Crimean War, by the Mylonas rifle-carrying Evzones (1874-1877), and by the Royal Guard detachment, who, as elements of the regular infantry divisions, fought in the First World War as well as the Asia Minor Campaign and the Greco-Italian War.

From the Greek War of Independence to the war against the Italians and right up to the present, the Evzone uniform has always been a point of reference. It has adapted to geography and weather conditions. “The full-pleated all-white foustanella meets ancient Greek heritage,” Haitoglou says.

As folk dancers and some schoolchildren prepare their foustanellas, scarlet fez caps, and leather tsarouchia shoes ahead of the March 25 Independence Day parades, the elite ceremonial Evzones unit is the subject of a special tribute in Athens.  A total of 40 colored drawings of the Evzone uniform by painter and costume designer Yiannis Mylonas illustrate the historical evolution of what could be described as the quintessential Greek national dress from 1821 to this day, the different variations, and the conditions under which these were designed.

Prepared in cooperation with Thessaloniki’s Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, the exhibition is curated by Vassilis Nikoltsios and Stavroula Mavrogeni. The works belong to the private collection of Alexandros and Lena Haitoglou.

To read this article in full, please visit: eKathimerini.com