Carnival, Lent, Revolution Commemorations and Romance
As you can probably gather by now there are lots of things that are going to be happening in town in February. It’s not going to be a quiet month. And there’s an extra day in it too. Carnival / Apokries will be taking up some time. It’s an absolutely marvellous festival and in 2011 Rethymnon was said to host the second biggest grand parade in the whole of Greece, being rivalled only by Patras. You can read more about the background to Apokries in our February 2007 edition of the Bugle. Here are just a few dates: The festival starts on the weekend of the 4th / 5th; Tsiknopempti (the huge fancy dress party night in the Old Town) is on the 16th, grand parade day is on Sunday the 26th and Clean Monday, which marks the start of Lent is on the 27th. Somewhere in the middle of all of this we also have the commemorations in the Akrotiri (Hania region) on the 9th February - which will obviously involve setting off fireworks - to mark the raising of the Cretan flag as a rebellious act at the end of the 19th Century. Why the rabbits? It’s a good question, Alice, but the answer could lie in the fact that the Bugle team has once again joined the emeis kai emeis Carnival team and we’re all going to be happy bunnies. Hopefully more about this in March. ..
Love is in the Air….
This information might be useful for some of those who could be described as belonging to the vaguer gender - IN 2012 VALENTINE’S DAY IS ON FEBRUARY 14TH WHICH HAPPENS TO BE A TUESDAY. IN THE AGE OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY YOU REALLY DON’T NEED TO FIND A PEN, PIECE OF PAPER / DIARY / PART OF YOUR BODY ON WHICH TO JOT THIS DOWN IN INDELIBLE INK OR LIPSTICK. YOU CAN TEXT THIS IN AS A REMINDER INTO YOUR CALENDAR ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE (ΚΙΝΗΤΌ).
The Rethymnon Bugle relationship counselling team say this every year, but there are a few of you out there who haven’t quite got the message which is: ‘Boys, bite the bullet and buy the stuff’. It is a waste of breath telling some of us females that the modern concept of Valentine’s Day is actually a cynical politically incorrect ruse designed by multi-national institutions to boost commercial enterprise that contributes to global warming and makes for a bad carbon footprint (we know this already, we don’t care, chocolates, flowers and the CAREFULLY CHOSEN card and kisses are nice). It is also a complete non-starter to try and use the ‘Every day is Valentine’s Day for you and me darling’ line (this one really, really doesn’t work, perhaps mainly for the reason that it isn’t true). So, babes, if you know what’s good for you, go out on Monday 13th February AT THE LATEST (actually preferably on Saturday 11th, but we accept that we can’t have everything) to make the romantic purchases. Ideally, flowers should not be an emergency panic buy from a petrol station (and yes, we can tell the difference). Who knows, you may find that engaging in appropriate Valentine’s day behaviour will help to reduce your bills for new crockery throughout the year (for example, Kate might not smash that plate).
Finally, though, being a little bit serious now, we also do appreciate that times are tough for many, so a hug and a cuddle with real romantic feeling will do very well too. To all you lovers out there: enjoy the day! And let’s hope that those of you who have yet to find romance will do so very, very soon!
Publicizing Community and Charity Events in The Bugle
We are happy to publicize community and charity events FOR FREE in the Bugle.
Obviously, the earlier you can get the details of your event to us the better.
And, though she tries her best, the editor is not always brilliant at meeting
deadlines. Or to put it another way, in the words of the late great Douglas
Adams “I love deadlines, I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by”.
So you are planning an event for the beginning of a particular month, try and
get the information to us in time for the previous edition. For example if you
want something to be flagged for the beginning of April, try and get it to us by
the end of February so we can put it in the March edition. Cheers!
