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Continued from
December's Issue...
- Organizing breakfast meetings is not customary in
Greece. We usually have breakfast with friends when
staying in a hotel or when we are guests at
somebody's house.
-
Coffee has well nigh replaced a nutritious breakfast
in our country.
- Iced coffee is very popular in Greece, and some
consider frappe (cold, frothed Nescafe) as one of
the greatest Greek inventions after Euclid's
elements! A gentleman should never drink this coffee
(or any other drink) with a straw, since this spoils
his facial expressions.
- The
traditional Greek cafeteria ("kafeneion") has been
replaced by French or Italian style cafes. Etiquette
manners apply at all such establishments, whether
traditionally Greek or European-influenced.
- When
people go to cafes they don't just drink their
coffee and leave. Sitting at a cafe is one of
Greek's best hobbies. Contrary to the norm in many
other countries, no waiter will stand in front of
you asking you to pay the bill and implying you must
leave as soon as you have sipped your last drop of
coffee. You may lazily sit there all day and no one
will disturb you unless of course you have fallen
asleep and the cafe is closing.
- Inviting someone for tea is not common in Greece.
On the rare occasions when an invitation is made for
tea, it is usually an evening event, and is more
commonly attended by women than men.
-
Dinner invitations are usually for between 9 and 10
o'clock at night.
-
Greeks are not known for their punctuality. If,
however, an invitation is for 9 o'clock, we should
arrive no later than a quarter of an hour after the
appointed time, especially if it is a seated dinner.
Pre-cocktail drinks have been especially invented
for this reason. If we are going to be more than
half an hour late we should call and inform our
hosts. (You should follow etiquette and try to be on
time; but do not be surprised if everyone else is
late).
- In
Greece we have kept the American custom of always
offering our hostess a gift. This is necessary when
invited for dinner at somebody's house. It is rather
unrefined to arrive at a reception with flowers or a
present. It is advisable to send our gift either the
day before or the day after the dinner party.
- At
an informal dinner party it is always a sign of
politeness to offer to help our host or hostess with
the dishes and cleaning up of the table. We
shouldn't insist if our hostess refuses. What's
important is to at least offer to help.
-
There are two ways of seating our guests in Greece;
one is according to protocol, the other is according
to their personality.
- The
seat of honor is on the hostess' right. The
honorable guest is usually the eldest person or the
person with the highest title. The next most
honorable guest sits on the hostess' left. According
to English formalities the most honorable guests sit
at the head of the table, whereas in France they sit
in the middle. At a friend's dinner party however,
where all guests are of a similar age, the guest of
honor is the newest comer.
- If
it is a family meal, the two mothers-in-law sit on
the left and right hand side of the host and the
fathers-in-law accordingly on the right and left of
the hostess. Father in law number 1 sits opposite
mother in law number 2 and father in law number 2
sits opposite mother in law number 1. Couples sit
opposite each other. If the atmosphere is relaxed,
we may sit wherever we wish.
- A
widow keeps her husband's seat, married women have
priority over divorced women, and unmarried ones
come last.
- If
we don't like our prearranged seat, we shouldn't
swap places at our own will. We should let our host
know as soon as we see him. Years ago, if someone
was displeased with his seating arrangement, instead
of leaving the table and showing offence, he or she
crossed the knife and fork over the plate and
refused to be served.
- In
Ancient Greece, when the future king of Sparta,
Agisilaus, was seated in a non-honorary place, he
commented that, "It is not the seats that honor men,
but the men who honor their seats."
- Men
must wait for women to be seated first.
- We
should wait for our hostess to sit before we take
our places. We should also wait until she commences
eating before we do.
- It
is customary in Greece, when dining at a restaurant
or taverna, for men to pay the bill. However, many
women nowadays in Greece offer to pay the bill, or
at least to contribute their share.
- If a
lady has invited a gentleman, however, it is useless
for him to make any move towards paying the bill.
Excerpt from "Watch Your Manners In Greece" by
Christos K. Zampounis
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The
word "music" comes from Greek, and
originally applied not only to music in the
narrow sense but also meant all the musical
arts, and therefore included dance, which is
one of the oldest forms of human expression.
Young men dance in Homer's Odyssey; Sirens
sing, or at any rate emit sounds; Pan plays
his pipes and Athena, briefly, the double
flute; Apollo plucks the lyre - no wonder
songs and dances with traditional
connections still have a firm foothold in
Greek daily life. Even in the cities
it is not unusual to see young people
dancing step sequences, parts of which may
be hundreds of years old, and Greek children
still learn some of their country's
best-known folk dances at school. 
Among
round dances of rural origin, two basic
groups can be distinguished according to
their tempo and types of steps.
Sirtos are slow round dances with
sliding, shuffling steps. Pidiktos
are faster; the dancers hop, skip, stamp,
and jump. Round dances are always
danced in a counter-clockwise direction.
