In their daily life they are impulsive
and despite foreign influences and mod-
els, they retain their customs and trad-
itions, especially in the villages and
small towns where, even today, one
sees men in the characteristic local
"vraka" or long baggy trousers, black
fringed kerchief and high boots. The
Cretans love dancing and singing. They
relish feast days and holidays, wed-
dings and festive gatherings, which in
most villages are enjoyed with the same
zest and high spirits as of yore. They
dance the lively local dances (the "Pen-
dozalis", the "Chaniotikos", the
"Sousta" the "Ortses" and others) and
sing the lovely "Mantinades", or
serenades, with their eloquent rhymes,
so full of meaning, to the accompani-
ment of the characteristic sound of the
traditional Cretan lyre.

Several factors account for this, among
which are Crete's fascinating ar-
chaeological sites, mild climate, lovely
beaches and clean seas, together with
the hospitality of its people and the
variety of the landscape. The infra-
structure of the island, too, has been de-
veloping, and impetus has been given to
the construction of high quality hotels
and tourist complexes, so that Crete
today constitutes a very important
tourist centre of international fame.

A fairly large percentage of the inhabit-
ants in the rural areas are involved in
agriculture and animal breeding while,
in coastal areas, fishing is an important
activity.

Special emphasis has been given to
modernising work methods and
machinery in order to achieve the
greatest possible productivity. The pro-
cessing of agricultural and dairy products and their standardisation involves
an important percentage of the workforce.

Traditional activities are still practised
by the villagers, however, at the same
time as some other form of employment.
There are still women who have hand-
looms in their homes, where they
weave their colourful patterns, while
others embroider, producing beautiful
articles in traditional designs.
The age-old art of pottery is still en-
gaged in, and the potters of today work
their supple material with the same
dexterity and artistic sense as did their
Minoan ancestors.

The resemblance of some of the tools
and household utensils in use until only
a few years ago in the villages, to those
ofMinoan times that have come to light
from excavations, is amazing.

The same also holds true for certain
customs and traditions of everyday life
which bring to mind what we know of
those of centuries ago. For instance, the
dead are mourned, even today, in the
villages of Crete, in the same way as
they used to be in Homer's time.
The culture and traditions of the Cretan people have their source in ancient
Greece and have come down to us
through the centuries, interspersed
with some new elements due to the influence of other peoples, which elements, however, were incorporated
into and adapted to the local ways.

The houses in the mountain villages
are amphitheatrically built on the sides
or tops of hills, and thus form natural
fortresses to safeguard the village from
pirate raids. The amphitheatrical layout of the settlement follows the line of the hill and develops around the church, the square and the coffee-shop.
In most cases the houses are built in
dense, compact clusters - as is usual in
fortress villages where the main concern is protection from pirates - while in others, the houses are free and sparsely built. The village neighbourhoods, harmoniously linked to the environment, are defined by their position along the hillside and, according to their situation, they are distinguished into the "panochori" (upper village), "mesochori" (middle village) and
"katochori" (lower village).

Seaside settlements were almost nonexistent up to the mid-19th century,
owing to the fear of pirate raids, which
forced the inhabitants to congregate in
large fortified towns or in the interior of
the island, in the most inaccessible and
naturally fortified sites possible.

After the end of the 19th century, old
abandoned Venetian coastal sites began to attract settlers - Aghios Nikolaos (Castel Mirabello), Siteia, Palaeochora (Selino), Panormo (Castel Milopotamo).

Most of the coastal settlements were
created in recent years with the development of tourism.

The buildings in these modern settlements are constructed according to
modern architectural concepts which
attempt to combine comfort with tradition and to harmonise these with the natural environment. Up to a point this aim has been attained, though unfortunately there have been some examples of poor workmanship and arbitrary interventions into the environment.

The Venetians and Turkish invaders
have left their mark on the island's architecture. The most important buildings of Cretan Renaissance architecture were constructed between the 15th and the 17th centuries, a period of peace and prosperity for Crete. This style of architecture was influenced by the Western Renaissance style but adapted to the needs of the Cretan way of life and to local conditions.
From the first years of its occupation of
Crete, the "most Serene" Republic of
Venice, in its desire to secure its valuable possession from potential invaders, felt the need, firstly, to fortify it, and then to adorn it with grand public buildings and sumptuous homes for the officials, thus extending to the occupied island its own splendour and prestige.
To achieve this, Venice engaged skilled
Italian engineers - the best-known of
whom is Michele Sanmicheli - to design and undertake the fortification of

Apart from the fundamental need to for-
tify the main ports, the defense of the is-
land was strengthened by a series of cas-
tles (castelli) built at strategic points (Cas-
tello of Gramvousa, of Spinalonga, Fran-
gocastello).

The towers of the Venetian feudal lords,
which are to be found all over the Cretan
countryside, and from which their owners
used to keep wateh over their lands and
vassals, are remarkable examples of Ven-
etian architecture.

If the fortifications, the castelli and the
Venetian towers, are indications of power
and strength, the palaces, the fountains,
the loggias, the clocks, the squares, the
monuments in Herakleion, Rethymnon
and Chania are indicative of grandeur and
magnificence. The Renaissance style of ar-
chitecture influenced the building style of
the houses, the churches and monasteries (Arkadi Monastery, Aghia Triada Monastery at Akrotiri).

At Rethymnon and Chania there are still
Venetian neighbourhoods with town
houses, which are among the few surviving examples in Greece.

The town house consists of a ground floor
(katoghi), a mezzanine (metzao), and a top floor (anoghi). It usually has an interior courtyard and is built around it in an L shape or in the shape of a Greek n. It has a covered entrance and the anoghi is directly above it.

In the katoghi were the storage areas and other auxiliary rooms. The metzao was used by the owner as a shop or as business premises, while the anoghi was the main living area of the urban family. It included the sitting-room, the bedrooms or kameres and the auxiliary rooms. Characteristic of these houses were the porteles or central doors, and the windows with inscribed or ornamented carved stone frames, the carved stone koutsounares, or spouts for the water to run off the flat roofs, the stone staircases and other features.

The Castles of the Venetian feudal lords
are examples of fortress architecture.
They are square, have thick stone walls,
are quite tall, and have a ground floor and
two upper floors. They have few and small
openings and an external stone staircase.
The rural Cretan house is simple, built in
the shape of a cube, with few openings.
The material used for its construction -
stone, wood, earth - is not elaborately
worked, giving it a plain and austere air,
but also one of impermanence.

In its even more advanced form, other
buildings are added on in an L shape, and
in its final form the house ends up being a
two-storey building.

This type of house is to be found mainly in
the Chora of Sfakia and in the coastal villages of Sfakia province.

The buildings here are more carefully
built, with wooden partitions on the top
floor and larger door and window frames
painted in bright colours. They are plas-
tered and whitewashed. In the western
part of the island, mostly, the houses have tiled roofs and are usually two-storey buildings, with an interior wooden staircase which, on the floor of the odas, where the bedrooms are, closes with a trap door. The courtyard - where there is one - is enclosed by high walls and a characteristic arched outer gate.

We can distinguish the costume into
the everyday dress, and that worn on
festive occasions, depending on the
quality of the material and the ornamentation.
The feast-day costume consists of a
navy blue felt vraka (salvari), a meitani
and a waistcoat (meitanoghefeko), a
navy blue and red sash and a white
woven shirt. On the head is worn a
crushed (or Sfakiano) fez with a navy
blue tassel hanging on the side, or a
black cap, or a black fringed kerchief.
High boots are also worn (stivania) and
kaltsonia (silk knitted socks). The
chain or kadena, worn around the neck
with the end tucked into the waist, is an
indispensable part of the costume, as is
the silver knife, stuck into the belt.

The woman's dress presents several
varieties, depending on the region
where it is worn (sartza in the Sfakia
and Anogheia regions, kouda in Kritsa,
for instance). The most usual type con-
sists of a kind of vraka (apomesoroucho
or inside clothing) which is tied round
the ankles, the sakofoustano or sack
dress, and the apron or brostopodia. On
the head is worn a kerchief (tsemberi)
or, in some places, a little red fez, the
papazi. Boots are also worn by the
women, though these are a little shorter than those of the men.
Cretan traditional costumes are no
longer worn in everyday situations.
One sees them in folklore festivals, in
night clubs and restaurants where folk
dances are featured, and in folk art
museums and collections. In some vil-
lages, the older men and women wear a
simplified version of the Cretan dress,
based on the vraka for the men and the
sakofoustano for the women.

Among the first are included the "mantinades", 15-syllable couplets, love
songs, but often, also, with a satirical,
historical, social content. Their main
characteristic is that they are improvised, and this often ends up as a poetic
contest between the singers and the
lyre-player.

Among the pan-Cretan songs are included the rimes which are composed by the rhymesters. They are made up of 15-syllable rhyming verses and tell stories of love, or have a historical or social theme.

Among the regional songs are the
"rizitika", sung in western Crete. They
are thus called because they originate
from the foot or "roots" ("rizes") of the
White Mountains.

There are two types or rizitika: the
"table" songs (tragoudia tis tavlas) and
the "songs of the road" (tragoudia tis
stratas).

The former are sung in the manner of
the Byzantine chanters, without the accompaniment of instruments, on joyful
occasions, with the singers seated
around the table. The latter type are
sung with instruments on the road
("strata"), for instance when going to
fetch the bride from her home.

In Crete one can also hear local versions
of Panhellenic songs sung in the local dialect: they are the "akritika" or border songs, songs with a historic theme, songs of the Nether World, etc. Also popular and often sung are excerpts from the famous romantic poem of the 12th century, Erotokiitos, and from other works of Cretan literature.

The traditional Cretan dances have their roots in antiquity and are considered a development of the labyrinth dance, a dance of worship, which Theseus brought back to mainland Greece, where it was danced in corn memoration of his victory over the Minotaur. The twists and turns of this dance were reminiscent of the convolutions of the labyrinth.

Today, dance groups and associations,
on Crete and all over Greece, keep the
memories alive and do not allow this
precious part of Cretan life to be lost.
Thus, five basic dances with local vari-
ations have been preserved and are still
danced today:

a) The "Siganos" (or "quiet" dance):
it is also called "Theseus' dance". It is
danced by men and women with their
arms intertwined at shoulder level, as
an introduction to the "Pendozalis". Its
steps are similar to those of the pen-
dozalis, but they are quiet, gentle and
are accompanied by the almost whispering sounds of the Cretan "lyra" and the lute. The dancer leading the dance appears to be pulling behind him the tightly knit human chain, in an effort to lead it out of the Labyrinth to safety.

b) The "Pendozalis" gets its name
from the five basic steps, the "zaia" as
the Cretans call them, which, repeated,
become ten. It is danced in an open cir-
cle by men and women with their arms
extended and placed on each others'
shoulders. It is a spirited, bouncing,
war dance, which shows off the dancers'
dash and gives the leading dancer the
opportunity to perform many improvisations and spectacular jumps and
leaps to the accompaniment of the lively sound of the "vrontolyra" (a kind of lyre) and the lute.

c) The "Syrtos", also called the
"Chaniotikos". It is danced all over
Greece and in Crete there is a local variation. The dancers, men and women,
dance in an open circle, linking arms at
shoulder level. The steps are slow, the
movements simple, uniform and controlled

e) The "Sousta": This dance got its
name from the rhythmic springing
movement of the body. It is danced by
men and women facing each other and
is a courting dance. The couple draws
together and separates with graceful
rhythmic movements. It is made up of
six slightly bouncing steps which are
repeated to become twelve.

There were also other Cretan dances -
the "Apanomeritis", the "Katsibar-
dianos", the "Pyrrhic" dance, etc.
which, unfortunately, have long since
stopped being danced. They have only
been kept alive in the memories of the
older folk and in the files of those who
study Cretan popular tradition.

These traditional activities, whether they
are carried out by professionals or by
amateurs, now involve an ever-dwindling
number of people and some of the crafts
are, in fact, on the way to extinction.

a) Weaving
In every village house the loom held pride
of place. Fabrics hand-woven in Crete are
distinguished by their tight weave, the
harmony of their colours and the artistry
of their decoration.
Red is the dominant colour in hand-woven
fabrics, while the decorations are multicoloured. The material used is cotton,
wool, flax or silk, depending on the item
and its use. Women used to dye their own yarns, using vegetable dyes - the roots of plants, leaves, flowers, fruits, the bark of trees etc. - or even soot from the fireplace and indigo - usually employed for the dyeing of the material from which the men's "vraka" is made.

The process of dyeing was complex and demanded much time and experience. It was done by groups of women, who worked, talked and sang together, in the home or courtyard of one or the other while, at the same time, the more experienced ones taught the younger ones the secrets of the art.

The articles woven by the Cretan women
were mainly destined for everyday use, articles indispensable for the village household or items of clothing: "patames" and "cbramia" (blankets, bed coverings),
sheets, towels, tablecloths. Also sacks,
shouldercloths (multi-coloured cloths
which women put on their shoulders to
rest their water-jugs on), aprons, swad-
dling clothes, the men's wide sashes, and
many more.

b) Embroidery
Cretan women also used to embroider,
and many still do so today. Using tasteful
colour combinations and harmonious pat-
terns, they create real works of art. Re-
thymnon embroidery, with its characteristic "Cretan" or "Rethymnian" stitch, worked with great patience and taste, is particularly renowned.

c. Pottery
The art of working with clay has its roots
in Minoan times. Chalepa in Hania was an
important centre for pottery, as was Mar-
garites in Rethymnon and Kentri in
lerapetra. The best-known pottery centre,
however, was Thrapsano in Herakleion,
where the inhabitants had been pot-mak-
ers since the time of the Venetians. They
used to create large jars, mainly, which are very strongly reminiscent of Minoan jars, and which were used for storing oil. They also made other smaller objects for use in the home (bowls, jugs etc.). Today, there are potters who produce decorative objects.

d) Basket-weaving
With materials which abound on the is-
land, the Cretans - not only the basket-
weavers themselves, but also many villa-
gers - wove baskets for various agricul-
tural and household uses: large baskets for carrying grapes after the harvest, wheat-baskets for storing grains, moulds for the curdling of cheeses, bread baskets, and others.

e) Cutlery
At Chania and Herakleion there were
many cutlers' workshops, some of which
still function today. Cretan traditional
knives are weU-known for their elegance,
their beautiful decoration and their dura-
bility. They have a blade made of a single
piece of steel with a single cutting edge, a
handle made of an animal's hom and a
wooden sheath in a leather casing.
In silver knives, the sheath is made of
chased silver and decorated with various
popular motifs.

f) Wood-carving
The old wood-carvers produced items
mainly of religious art. They carved icon
screens, icon stands, pulpits, candlesticks
and other objects showing an eastern influence, to decorate the churches. One
branch of wood-carvers was involved in
the creation of popular musical instruments. Today, only a few wood-carvers are still to be found. However, in several regions - mainly in mountainous ones - talented amateurs create small works of art (spoons, forks, wooden stamps for impressing designs on the bread-offerings for the church, lyres, and various other objects).

The first step was the "pledge" or en-
gagement ceremony, which took place in
the house of the bride-to-be, and was
blessed by a priest. After that the marriage contract was drawn up.

Weddings were usually performed on
Sundays or other holidays, but never on
a Tuesday, a Wednesday or during the
month of May. A few days before the
wedding, the guests who had been invited sent their "kaniskia" or presents,
usually oil, wine, cheese or meat.

Before the ceremony, the trousseau was
carried from the house of the bride to the
house of the groom where, in most cases,
the young couple were to live. This trous-
seau consisted mainly of handwoven or
embroidered articles, sheets, and other
household furnishings. It was laden onto
horses and was accompanied by relatives
and friends in a joyful procession, to the
sounds of the lyre, of singing, and the firing of guns.

The religious service was performed according to the church ritual and, following the ceremony, the newly-weds led their guests in the dance in the precint of the church, to the sound of instruments
and bridal songs. The dancing then con-
tinued in the newly-weds' home. Before
the bride entered, she made the sign of
the cross with honey on the lintel and the doorposts, then she stepped on a
ploughshare or a sheepskin and broke a
pomegranate on the doorstep. All these
were symbolic acts to ensure that the life
of the couple would be sweet as honey,
strong and productive as the ploughshare, mild as the sheep, fruitful
and plentiful as the seeds of the pomegranate. Then the couple sat on the
"pasto", a couch decked with flowers and
symbolic branches, and their guests sang
for them the "pastika" or songs with
which their charms and virtues were extolled. A two-day celebration then followed, involving much eating, drinking and dancing.

Many of the traditions of the Cretan
wedding are being revived today in several villages of the island.

Wheat, ground in the hand-mill, wasused to make the "chondros" which went into many dishes and mainly into the preparation of a kind of soup.
Local olives and cheese, mountain
greens as a salad, with a dressing of
olive oil and lemon or vinegar, and beans, are never missing from the Cretan table. Among the typical Cretan dishes are snails (or "cochlioi"), meat "ofto" (large chunks of lamb or goat roasted on charcoal), boiled goat, "staka" (made of butter and flour), Sfakia pie (lamb with myzithra cheese cooked in phyllo pastry in the oven), "kaltzounia" (small pies with homemade phyllo pastry, filled with unsalted white cheese and fried in oil).

In the winter months, the diet included
sausages and "omathies" or "tsiladia",
a pork jelly.
The food is accompanied by genuine
Cretan wine found in different local
variations. Another characteristic local
drink is "raki" or "tsikoudia", a strong
alcoholic drink made of choice mulberries.

Today, all over the island, one finds
tavernas which serve traditional Cretan dishes, "mezedes" (titbits), wine and raki.