Fairs are a part of the Greek tradition. They originate from the ancient years when Greeks celebrated their gods. In modern history fairs are usually held when Greek people celebrate the name of a saint of the Greek Orthodox Church. Benches are placed outside the celebrating church and vendors are selling their goods, while beggars are begging for money. It’s nice to visit a fair in a village but in Athens fairs cause huge traffic jams and if you live nearby, parking your car when getting back home proves to be a nightmare.
All images shown here, have been taken with a 28mm prime lens at 1600 ISO. Of course, no flash used.
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Supplication
Beggar selling candles, on the stairs of a church during a local fair…
“The wealth of the Greek Church is huge. The state has not recorded it, also the leadership of Church of Greece declares officially that it does not know the financial elements of abbeys, monasteries and temples because each metropolis, abbey, temple and monastery has its own economic management. The profits of the Greek Church come from offers, from renting its huge number of buildings and lands and from stocks in the Stock market. The Greek Church does not pay taxes to the Greek state.”
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Changing diapers
…on the stairs of the church.
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Shopping at the fair
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Old lady’s hair
…is the name of the candy that this lady has just bought for her 2 grand-children. It’s made of sugar.
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Souvlaki time
Whoever has visited Greece knows very well what souvlaki, our national snack, is! You can find it everywhere, anytime of the day or night. Those who haven’t tasted it, simply don’t know what they’re missing.
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The candle seller
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Dream little boy
Tired from the fair’s noisy crowds the little boy sleeps in his mother’s arms…Coming from an African country he’ll seek a better future in Greece…I wish him and all the immigrant children all the luck they can have away from their birth places.
May racism never harass his life!
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The long night
As the passers by, look at the bench with the pirated cds and dvds for the latest releases, the little daughter of the “store” owners is preparing to spend the night…few minutes later when I passed again heading to home the little angel was asleep….
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Ok! we’re going home!
Each an every picture in this series is sooo powerful… the type of pictures you like to take your time and notice all the details. Just Excellent like usual Stam!
Thank you so much for visiting and commenting Elias!
A poignant series, there are soul-stirring, affecting and haunting photos here. But I love how you counterbalanced them with a few witty, funny, tender images. This is life, opposite emotions and things coexist and the balance is always oscillating between them.
What you wrote about the Greek Church is very interesting. Much the same applies to the church in Italy too. Maybe here is even worse, the church still has a too big ‘temporal power’ here, it interferes with politics and government. The richness and luxury of church is a shame and a scandal, and many other scandals there are as we all know. Very little of spiritual remains.
Opposite emotions coexist, so true! This is what thrills me while visiting fairs and other events and I just can’t resist clicking.
Church and politics walk together, hand in hand, unfortunately. Church was involved in one of the largest financial scandals that shook our country recently.
Wonderful photo essay!
Thank you very much for visiting and commenting Susan!