Traditional Threshing and Threshing Sledges
Coming soon, under construction…
Ethnographics
During the first half of the 20th Century, Cyprus experienced the “gift” of industrialisation, which meant that many traditional aspects of life started to change. For example, transportation and basic agricultural tasks changed dramatically as people started to use machines instead of animals. This change was most often seen in the towns first, and only slowly spread into rural areas. Therefore, even as late as the 1980s-early 1990s, some traditions and “old ways of doing things” were still alive and could be observed in the villages. True, towards the end of the century traditional life and culture in Cyprus were on their way out and experiencing their “swan song moments”, but some of us were lucky to be around with a camera and we were able to record various practices which today are rarely if ever observed. This “window into Cyprus” allows us to share some nostalgic images, as we look back with respect and affection at the Cyprus that used to be…
Traditional Olive Oil Production
In the mid-late 1980, I had the rare opportunity to witness and photograph the production of Cypriot olive oil using “old school” processing techniques that had already largely dropped out of existence across the island. By the early to mid 1980s, most traditional olive oil production facilities had been up-dated or entirely replaced by modern …
Real Cyprus People
Leonidas of Avagas: Man from Another Centruy One of the most remarkable and unforgettable characters I’ve ever met anywhere on this Planet (!) was this old shepherd guy named Leonidas. Actually, everybody called him “Leo.” He came from Inia Village in the Akamas area of Paphos, but spent a significant portion of his life …
“Big Kyriakos” the Gypsum Man
The called him “Tsiakataris*.” His real name was Kyriakos Mikhail. He was a giant man, perhaps at first glance physically intimidating, but when you got to know him he was a man with a gentle soul. I first met him in 1978, one of my first friends in Kalavasos Village, where I was one of …
The Wedding
Back in the late 1970s – early 1980s, in many villages across Cyprus, weddings were still carried out as extremely traditional affairs. True, most of the village weddings were held during a single day, but I remember in 1980 being part of a wedding in Kouklia Village (Paphos District) which extended over three days! I …
The Boy from Panayia who became Archbishop and First President of Cyprus
It is well known by almost every Cypriot that Archbishop Makarios came from a village in Paphos high up next to the magnificent forests of the western Troodos Mts. Born in 1913 (August 13) in Pano Panayia to a poor shepherd family, he went to Kykko Monastery at a young age and rose from novice …
The Doors of Cyprus
Cyprus has some great doors. Wooden doors, stone doors, metal doors, open doors, blocked doors, collapsed doors, doors that have seen history pass through them, doors that can tell stories, doors that represent a distant, long-ago culture, doors that allow us to pass through to see, taste and smell the Cyprus that is gone but …