Καλλιτεχνικός Σύλλογος Δημοτικής Μουσικής Δόμνα Σαμίου

A local Easter dance. After morning service on Easter Tuesday, the people of Ierissos arrive in a procession led by banners and the village priests, at Zographiko, site of ‘The Dark Youths Threshing-floor’. There, after a communal feast, the unaccompanied dance begins. It opens with the song ‘On the Dark Youth’s Threshing-floor’ and continues with other melodies sharing the same rhythmical form and consequently an identical dance form. At the end of the event comes the kangeleftόs in which every member of the community joins in, including the priests and the priests’ wives. The single circle of dancers, the men leading the women, performs a very simple step. Arm-in-arm, except for the first two whose hands are linked by a kerchief, the participants move over the ground as the song directs them. The verses instruct the two foremost dancers to lead the dance in a serpentine and swaying movement. And so the human chain follows a winding pattern and eventually passes under the arch formed by the two dancers who are in the lead.

The act of passing under the arch is explained by reference to hazy historical events preserved in the folk tradition of the villagers. In 1854 Ierissos joined in the uprising of the Chalkidiki against the Sublime Porte. In reprisal for its revolt, the Turks destroyed the village and its inhabitants sought shelter on the Athos peninsula. According to the legend, this is the only instance of women being permitted entry to Mount Athos. A few months later, the Turks allowed the villagers to return to their homes, but only after obliging them first to pass, as a sign of submission, beneath the arch made by Muslim soldiers with their swords above the threshing-floors outside the village. One youth who could not bear the humiliation refused to submit and was slaughtered in front of his beloved one.

Other sources place the event on the Kassandra peninsular of the Chalkidiki on Easter Sunday of 1821. That day, the Turks permitted the Christians to return to their villages. However, this version of the event relates that the number of young men slaughtered was much greater. Be that as it may, both legends allow that the serpentine dance should be performed on the site of ‘The Dark Youth’s Threshingfloor’ on the Tuesday of Easter Week in commemoration of the passage of Greeks beneath Turkish swords, whence the arch, so that the tragic death of youths shall never be forgotten. Zoe Margari (1998)

Studio recording, 1997.

Based on a Radio Thessaloniki recording made in 1964.