TRADITIONS
Xoulia
Do we know what actually was?
Let’s take it from the beginning! Let us imagine that there is a beautiful young lady at the perfect age for marriage. Apart from her physical beauty, her skill at being a great housewife and her modesty, her family is also obliged to display her trousseaux. The financial status of a family in the Messogeia was proportionate to the richness of the woman’s traditional costume. Within the framework of this logic, the xoulia was worn not only by common women at the ripe age for marriage, but also – and especially by engaged ones. The xoulia was a type of cap – a fez -made of a red fabric, completely covered with coins which had been sewn symmetrically. A xoulia required from one hundred to one hundred and fifty small Turkish silver coins (sometimes they were gold plated) in order to cover the whole fez. The same craftsmen who sewed the men’s fezzes made these as well. They began the sewing of the coins starting from the back of the head and continued in circular motion till the top of it where an elaborate round button was sewn to place. They also sewed a narrow ribbon – also covered in coins – which started from behind the one ear, went under to chin and buttoned onto the other side – called the “micreza” or “grouseze”. This ribbon was to help the fez stay in place on the person’s head. At the back of the fez, a long bordeaux, silk braid was attached to it, called the “peskouli”. The final touch for the headdress was the floral headscarf which fell from the middle of the head, back, allowing a great part of the fez to show. The wiser households would order two fezzes. The one with the “parades” (money), for everyday use, while the second – the “smart” one was sewn with coins of greater value. The latter was worn at formal family outings (celebrations, weddings etc.). Even during the period of slavery, poverty and attacks by corsairs and invaders, the families were especially careful of the appearance of their unmarried young women. The following extract is from the journal of the traveler, Maxim Peimbo; it was written during the siege of the Acropolis. “… some lights in the distance tell us that we are approaching the village of Markopoulo. Our arrival is being announced by the wild barking of dogs… the people, our hosts, believing that it is yet another siege by the Turks, blow out their lamps and run to safety …the host, had a daughter – a very beautiful one. The scarf on her head was full of coins; her trousseaux one day…”
Research-text: Yiota N. Drakou, 04-10-2016
Bibliography: Women’s traditional costume
in Attica – Greece
The costume of a woman from the Messogeia –
1800-1930, Maria Michael Dede.
Magazine: Symvoli
Photographs: Penelope Katsouli
The Embroidered bread
of the Mediterranean
These are the words our people use to define our culture and faith. Bread! Of superior value to us all. It honors and is honored. It is honored and appreciated by people and it, itself honors the Divine. By saying the words of the Lord’s Prayer: “…give us today our daily bread …”, the wishes and prayers of every simple human being are expressed. The embroidered bread, dominates every significant occasion in the life of, not only the Mediterranean people in general, but of all Greeks. It is present at weddings, engagements, baptisms, funerals and at every Holy celebration – be it Christmas, New Years, Easter or the commemoration of Saints’ days. The whole process involved in the preparation of the bread and the whole ritual depend on the occasion for which it is made. Weary people, after a day’s work in the fields, frugal people, have expressed themselves in a most poetic way through the most modest and simplest substance they had – dough. Their offering of it to our Creator, and its connection with celebrations of joy but also events of great sorrow, has inspired these simple women who had no idea what symmetry or art meant. The artist, Mrs. Angeliki Tseva, has defined it in a most appropriate way: “People are born with the light of art within their souls. They write folklore with shapes and symbols they use.”
Yiota N. Drakou
- Culture inspired by the decorations of a bridal costume. A Mediterranean woman in her bridal costume: a fouti (a full body shirt with a satin seam), a jako (a short blouse which tied beneath the bosom) having embroidered sleeves, an apron with cut-away embroidery, a red woolen belt, a woolen sigouna lined with velvet and embroidered in gold cotton (gray), a red bridal scarf on her head, a floral neck scarf, a silk embroidered bridal bolia with gold lace on kopanelia. Jewellery: On her hands, are bezelikia and wide metal bangles. On her head – a zelitsi. On her bosom is a net, a cord and giorntani. On her back are silver reels with silk tufts. It is considered to be the most expensive bridal costume of Greece.
- A Crucifix with violets and lilies
- A wreath with acorns: “The acorn – a source of perpetual power. From the altar of Apollo and the bridal fountia
of Attica, to the dough embroidery of the Mediterranean embroidered bread. This gives the baton for new imaginative creations with a reference to tradition. - The quadruple foundation of the world: “I bow down and worship the four corners of the world above, the quadruple foundations of the mind: Bread, wine, fire, woman” (Nikos Kazantzakis – Odysseus I 664-665)
- “If you decompose Greece, in the end, all that will remain will be: an olive tree, a vine and a ship; meaning that, with all that much – you can rebuild it.” Odysseus Elytis.
- Symbols of fertility in shapes; that of an upside-down omega and the acorn, meanders and a helix, nuts and wheat. A symbolic reference to the goddess of fertility.
- An olive wreath
- A tourtoulaki (a small bread ring, an invitation to a wedding), photographed with a bi-layered bridal gown.
- “A well matched mutual life, born of the heart of the holy oak, stored in miter-like shapes, fragrant from the bridal hyacinths, happy as is the magnificent dahlia, populous as the buds on a lemon-tree, lit up as the wick of the oil lamps of the Virgin Mary … until a deep old age. All in perpetual cycles, having no beginning and no end of a continuous passing through time”.
- The first is called “May” and was sent to the fiancé by her mother-in-law, on a tray which was covered with a smart head scarf and a large candle tied with a white bow, which had “parades” (coins) sewn onto it. It had five eggs, the shape of a Crucifix marked in the centre and decorated with flowers. The dove usually symbolized the Holy Spirit or good news for the house (a postal dove). It was kneaded on the morning of Holy Saturday. A “May” would also be left at home and would be broken on Ascension Day for good fortune. It was kept in the showcase, with all the Holy icons one had at home, until that day.
- The following ones are the “kosones” – different shapes of animals or baskets which were offered together with the Easter candle to godchildren, or just to all children in general.
- The Christopsomo (Christ’s bread), was always divided into four by a large central cross in the center. The first quarter on the right was dedicated to the host of the house. The other three to the family and the home, to the animals of the house and to births. Depending on the occupation of the host, the shape was decided upon. If there was a member of the family living abroad, they would mention him. Every housewife’s skill at embroidery was determined by the elaborate motifs made.