Events not to be Missed in Cyprus

Cyprus is big one for celebrations. There is hardly any dry period throughout the calendar year and celebrations for one event actually merge into the other most of the time so that the place is reverberating with music and dance all the time on one pretext or the other. You can see busy municipal workers pulling down the decorations for one thing and hauling up ones for the next one .This continued festivity gives Cyprus a general happy, carefree atmosphere and a joie de vivre is palpable in its people all the time. Christmas and Easter are the biggest celebration, of course. They are big social and family events like in all Christian countries but here there is a distinct, predominant religious flavour to them. The celebrations start more than a month before each and envelope everyone in the festive spirit. Easter, though, is the biggest festival for the Orthodox Christians and is very rich in folklore. Even the forty day lent, the fasting period before Easter is religiously observed by not only old but a surprising number of young people. Abstaining from meat, dairy and egg is an exercise not only for the body but also for the mind. There are charming little customs and traditions associated with it. A friend told me that as a child they used to paint lent as a lady with seven feet and no mouth. Absence of mouth symbolised fasting and they used to cut off one foot at the end of each week and save the last foot for the holy week. Easter is a time to wake up to the sounds of church bells every morning, and feasting on delicious flounes. Besides the big ones there are some other important and beautiful festivals which I have enlisted.