Χάρμαινα
This weekend just gone I returned to the area of Fokida for the Charmaena celebrations, for the second year running.
Charmaena is a part of Amfissa where the local tanners lived and worked, in part because of the conveniently located water spring. One of them, Konstantis, apparently lost his wife to a lightning strike near the spring. He died shortly thereafter, and legend has it he haunted the spring and the whole area and would walk around on Saturday nights, howling and dragging chains. Pretty standard haunting, of course. Except this one, like many other supernatural beings in Greek folklore, wasn't all bad. He became the unofficial protector of tanners in the area, and kept other, less friendly ghosts at bay.
It's this legend that is reconstructed in Amfissa to this day. And this is merely the excuse, because even though the Charmaena Ghost is there, as an impressive nine foot, eerie bulk (that looks like a Lovecraftian muppet), but also two of the ghosts he found to protect his favourite tanners.
There are various processions of the most Dionysian of creatures - people dressed in sheep fleeces, with blackened faces and bells strapped to them run through the streets howling, ringing their bells, beating makeshift drums, some even have ram horns on. There's also a sombre, languid rhythmic procession of torch-bearing maidens in make-up, along with an assortment of ghosts (the sheet-over-the-head variety), witches (the pointy-hat variety) and other creatures of the night.
The groups converge, reaching on of the town squares and are joined by the three ghosts. The noise and energy that results is astounding. These are mountain people who spend most of the year pent up, repressed and anhedonic. This is the week they can let it all out, and out it all comes! In the process, fulfilling their needs serve to bring this incredible event to life, and to keep what appears to be one of the last surviving rites of Dionysos alive. And all this, not twenty minutes' drive from Delphi - nominally, Apollo's Panhellenic sanctuary, but interestingly enough, the centre of Dionysos' worship during the winter months.
