New Democracy & PASOK Get Biggest Chunk of State Funding For Election

The following news does not surprise us in the least, because only in this God forsaken country can a political party of less than 5 percent -PASOK- receive a huge chunk of state funding to promote its candidates for the upcoming Euro elections.



Specifically, the ruling New Democracy and PASOK are going to receive more than 1 MILLION Euros for the upcoming elections. This obviously makes no sense since PASOK, which is hanging on for dear life is due to receive some 1.3 MILLION Euros in state funding ahead of May's European elections, under an all-party agreement.

The ruling New Democracy party is obviously expected to receive the largest share, or 1.4 million Euros, while SYRIZA who came in second and is the main opposition party will receive a lot less.

Does this make any sense?

Obviously it doesn't. But as long as PASOK exists and continues to have its tentacles in the state system, nothing will ever make sense.

Under the scheme, which was agreed at a meeting at the interior ministry on Monday, a total of 7 million Euros will be made available to the parties to fund their campaigns. From the aforementioned sum, about half will be distributed according to the 2009 election results and only 10% according to the last parliamentary elections in June 2012. The remaining 40 percent is going to be handed out after the election, according to the percentage each party receives.

A joint ministerial decision published in the government gazette on April 30 provides a breakdown on how the money will be allocated. Only parties that managed to cross the parliamentary threshold are entitled to funding.

(It should be noted that the decision, signed by the finance and interior ministers, also suspends any payments of state funds to Golden Dawn, pending the trial against its leaders.)

Based on the decision, the parties will receive the following:

Party - New Democracy

2009 (%) - 32.29
Amount (share of €3.5m) - 1,220,261.10
2012 (%) - 29.66
Amount (share of €700,000) - 220,807.07
Total (€) - 1,441,068.17

Party - PASOK
2009 (%) - 36.64
Amount (share of €3.5m) - 1,384,696.82
2012 (%) - 12.28
Amount (share of €700,000) - 91,448.26
Total (€) - 1,384,696.82

Party - SYRIZA
2009 (%) - 4.7
Amount (share of €3.5m) - 1,77,550.66
2012 (%) - 26.89
Amount (share of €700,000) -200,187.45
Total (€) - 377,738.11

Party - KKE
2009 (%) - 8.35
Amount (share of €3.5m) - 315,476.56
2012 (%) - 3.98
Amount (share of €700,000) -33,530.73
Total (€) - 349,007.29

Party - LAOS
2009 (%) - 7.15
Amount (share of €3.5m) - 270,126.59
2012 (%) - 1.58
Amount (share of €700,000) - 0
Total (€) - 270,126.59

Party - EcoGreens
2009 (%) - 3.49
Amount (share of €3.5m) - 131,888.27
2012 (%) - 0.88
Amount (share of €700,000) - 0
Total (€) - 131,888.27

Party - Independent Greeks
2009 (%) - n/a
Amount (share of €3.5m) - n/a
2012 (%) - 7.51
Amount (share of €700,000) - 55,931.32
Total (€) - 55,931.32

Party - Golden Dawn
2009 (%) - 0.46
Amount (share of €3.5m) - 0
2012 (%) - 6.92
Amount (share of €700,000) - 51,530.57
Total (€) - 51,530.57

Party - DIMAR
2009 (%) - n/a
Amount (share of €3.5m) - n/a
2012 (%) - 6.26
Amount (share of €700,000) - 46,564.60
Total (€) - 46,564.60
The parties also agreed to allocate the amount of broadcasting time afforded to parties on the basis of the 2009 (40%) and 2012 (40%) elections.

The joint ministerial decision also agreed to provide parties with 10 MILLION EUROS in state funding for 2014, broken down as follows:

New Democracy - 820,386.17
Syriza - 749,690.3
Pasok - 376,870.24
Independent Greeks - 255,097.85
Golden Dawn - 240,009.57
Democratic Left - 222,983.38
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) - 178,295.83
Popular Orthodox Rally (Laos) - 63,333.33
Ecologists Greens - 63.333.33
Recreate Greece - 30,000

As with the election funding, Golden Dawn will not receive any state funding pending the outcome of the trial against its leadership.

Without any explanation to us the taxpayers, our politicians are once again doing whatever they want with the tolerance of the mainstream media who on its part is sinking its claws into more unpayble loans from Greek banks, the guarantors of whom are once again the Greek people.

Wake up Ellada!

Provopoulos: Grecovery underway

While addressing institutional investors in London on Wednesday, in the framework of a "Bank Speaker Series" Forum organised by Goldman Sachs, the Governor of the Bank of Greece George Provopoulos said that confidence in Greece's prospects is returning.

Provopoulos noted that Greek banks are among the best capitalised institutions in Europe adding that a very large degree of consolidation has been achieved. He said that over the last four years the number of banks has been reduced drastically, their costs have been slashed significantly resulting in a more compact, efficient and competitive banking system.

The Governor of the Bank of Greece also pointed to the significant progress that has been made by the economy towards fiscal adjustment. At the same time he said Greece is regaining its competitiveness, while the government has been successful in dealing with a current account deficit and promoting reforms.

As a result of the above, he added, "a return to growth - Grecovery - was underway".

It should be reiterated that Provopoulos' term at the helm of the Bank of Greece ends in June.

The event was attended by prominent executives from international investment firms and institutional portfolios, such as JP Morgan, Fidelity, Citadel, Aviva, Eton Park, etc.

Samaras - Greece's indications of energy resources "extremely auspicious"

Addressing a forum on "The Future of Greek Gas and Power Markets: Looking Ahead with Optimism and Realism" on Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that "indications of the country's energy resources are extremely auspicious", adding that more and more Europeans are stressing the importance of the country's wealth of energy sources.

     "From energy alone we can achieve growth that will meet every target," Samaras noted.

He said that of course Greece does not plan to rely on energy alone and added that all this necessitates investments, stability, serious planning, consistent implementation, trust in our country, open communication by Greece with the rest of the world and a stabilising role of our nation in our region instead of isolationist behavior.

"Energy is the outstanding issue that reflects distortions of the Greek economy," he added.

He also touched on the developments in Ukraine noting that they prove the need for Europe's energy security. He then said that the TAP pipeline secures an alternative passage of Caspian gas to be channeled to Europe.

      "For the first time, Greece is entering the global energy map", Samaras said. 

New Direct Flights to Thessaloniki, Mykonos & Santorini By British Airways

British Airways is launching new direct flights to Thessaloniki and the Greek Cyclades. As of May 3rd the airline will add flights to Mykonos and Santorini from Heathrow Airport to its scheduled flights, and another flight to Thessaloniki, from London's Gatwick Airport.

Flights to Mykonos are scheduled for Tuesdays and Saturdays, to Santorini on Wednesdays and Sundays and there is going to be 4 scheduled flights to Thessaloniki every week. The new routes will be served by an A320 aircraft, that features Club Europe and Euro Traveler cabins.

The move by BA to add new nonstop flights to Greece obviously proves that there is high demand from the English travel market to visit our country.

BA's presence in Greece now spans four cities and 30 weekly flights.

5 Reasons Why We Will Experience A Different World by 2020

      "All things must pass, everything is in transition, nothing lasts forever."

By John Ward (The Slog) - The above is perhaps one of the most profound things ever written about the nature of a 3D Universe in which Time exists as a relative variable. Only via the passage of Time can things develop, hatch, grow, change and die. This applies as much to cultures, economies, wealth, systems and planets as it does to living things. But the most intelligent living thing on our planet lives in denial of that reality over 90% of the time.

     “Armageddon just doesn’t happen,” said an old American friend of mine ten or so years ago. But it does, it has, and it will again.

Every day we see the “news” in our media, but only very rarely do we extrapolate a trend. Yet beneath many headlines, there is written (even if it’s between the lines of copy in some cases) a portent of what may well be about to happen. Let me illustrate this with the use of news items in the media today.

ONE -  Since 2005, China’s income inequality has grown dramatically. It is based on the rural/urban divide and so, as the economic growth of the country leaps ahead, there are now three distinct groups: the super rich (well under 5%) the comfortably off (under 10%, but 95% based in major city centres) and the poor living at or below subsistence level (85%-90% of the population). That’s very similar to the situation that pertained in France during the 1780s. One major failure to supply food in China would probably result in a contemporary form of the storming of the Bastille.

TWO -  The US is a divided country, almost equally consisting of pro-neoliberalism on the one hand, and more liberal powers to provide welfare on the other. Straddling these in turn is an equal disagreement about economic stimulation (QE) and budget deficits. Earlier this month, Michigan passed an application to convene a constitutional conference. Some say this now adds up to 34 States having done so, while others (my camp) say that’s not yet the case. However, at 34 States, Washington must accede to the request. Ana at that point, all bets about how the US is run are off. The US has a heavily armed populace in which more and more of the wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Some 32 American States are now technically bankrupt. Following a constitutional convention, the US could become a corporate dictatorship or a nation at war with itself.

THREE - In the UK, the Cash for Questions scandal exploded three years ago, and then died away. Business at Westminster rapidly returned to its normal mode….self-interest, corporate monied corruption, and devious behaviour. But then Conservative MP Patrick Mercer’s greasy fingers got the better of his judgement, and a joint investigation by The Telegraph and the BBC’s Panorama programme disclosed how he’d tabled a series of parliamentary questions and put down a motion after accepting £4,000 from undercover reporters. He’s now (under duress) resigned in disgrace… and UKIp’s Nigel Farage is obviously interested in standing for the seat.

At the 2010 general election, Mercer more than doubled his majority to 16,152 to make Newark one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. But the seat has a history of instability: Mercer himself overturned a 4,000 majority to win the seat himself in 2001. And more to the point, it is a relatively prosperous seat in which very right wing candidates such as Mercer are greatly welcomed: Patrick Mercer despises Camerlot and all its works, and is a strong eurosceptic who has given only lukewarm support to his replacement candidate. He enjoys close allies in Bob Stewart and Bob Jenkin – both eurosceptic Tory rebels. It is rumoured that anti-Cameron donor Lord Ashcroft may well offer help to Farage, were he to stand. If Farage won, it would explode the myth that voting UKip is a wasted vote, and potentially throw the next Parliament into even more of a governmental deadlock. And it would force the Conservative Party to both dump Cameron and move further to the Right. Within months, the UK could give notice of its intention to secede from the European Union.

FOUR - While human-rights groups (most notably Amnesty International) issued reports lambasting Greece and Bulgaria yesterday – accusing border authorities there of pushing refugees back over their respective borders with Turkey – all of this links into far bigger issues: the effect of further Islamification on European politics, the nature of south-eastern Europe as the meeting point between Western Christianity and African Islamism, the mental and geopolitical instability of Turkish leader Recep Erdogan, exactly how NATO is going to square this circle, and America’s continuing obsession with access to energy.

FIVE -  The news that Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA), Spain’s second-biggest bank, suffered a first-quarter profit plunge might seem to be a purely Spanish financial sector meltdown issue, but it isn’t. The clue’s in the name: like many southern European banks (soon no doubt to be passed as A1 by the Banking Union’s risible stress test) BBVA has strong South American links. The profits have been hit by a drop in South American earnings, mostly associated with Venezuela’s decision to let its Bolivar currency drop sharply in value on the currency exchanges.

In truth however, what we’re seeing here is another episode in the continuing saga called Where Does Money Go Next? France’s finance minister recently called for the euro to drop in value in order to boost EU exports, and there are any one of five bets you could put down on what happens to the Yuan from here. The Japanese QEfest (as predicted, it isn’t working) means that anything could happen to the Yen; and at an admittedly lower level, signs of a US stock market sell-off would give Fed boss Janet Yellen yet more to think about on America’s own QE front.

Although few if any commentators see the ‘world currency’ as an option (life with the euro has been bad enough) the willingness of corporacratic and political figures to mess with fiat currency around the world has had a number of obvious effects. The two most pressing ones, I think, are the asset bubble in property, and the rise and rise of virtual ‘alternative’ money forms not open (in theory) to manipulation.

Gold would have been the obvious safe haven in the past – and will be again in my view – but has been tarnished by the increasingly blatant control of its value by central banks and miners.

The true significance of these apparently random news stories is best appreciated by taking a blanket stab at how the world might look, in the light of them, five years from now. Such of course suffers from the flaw in all futurology – the left-field factors that nobody foresees. But my point here is not to be a futurologist:my point is to say the future will be different.

On that basis then, by say 2020, China could be in administrative chaos; the USA might be fighting a civil war; the European Union could be a collapsed vacuum into which neo-fascism rushes to meet religious and racial violence head on; the virtual currencies may be the new mainstream, and the super-rich will probably be esconced in heavily armed communities where money as we understand it today could be a rapidly fading memory.

Or none of this may come to pass.

But something will.

The world’s oligarch-controlled media are doing all of us – and in the end, themselves – a massive disservice by continuing with this ludicrous pretence of normality.

We are less than halfway through a game-changing human process that began around 2003, and it will neither reverse nor go away. Somewhere, there must be an editor who grasps this, and will be prepared to break ranks.

We shall see.

BUSTED - Ex-TV journalist Says Planeloads of Cash Flown into Greece in 2012, But Press Buried Story

Questions over the role of the media in Greece's crisis have been re-raised by the admission of a former TV reporter (and current candidate with the governing New Democracy party) that journalists knew that a bank run was underway with emergency cash being flown into the country, yet withheld the information even after the danger had passed.

In June 2012, things were not looking good for Greece. The country was in between elections after a round of parliamentary elections in May failed to result in a government. Meanwhile amid the political instability, with a hard public line emanating from the troika over the country’s emergency bail-out program, the prospect of a disorderly default and exit from the eurozone was looking increasingly likely.

Nervous Greeks began to empty their bank accounts, fearful that their euros may be converted to drachmas overnight. Effectively a bank run was underway. As has since been revealed in the book The Default Line excerpted in this August 2013 article in the Daily Mail - the only reason why Greek banks did not run out of cash during that period is because, under secret orders from the authorities in Brussels and Berlin, billions of euros in hard cash were trucked and flown into the country.

Most Greeks had no idea that such an operation was underway – most but not all. Among those in the know was journalist Maria Spyraki. The reporter turned politician for New Democracy (she recently resigned her position as political correspondent at Mega channel in order to run for a European parliament seat in the upcoming elections) revealed in an interview this weekend that she knew of the operation and related banking crisis at the time but chose not to report it:

      “Greece had a bank run between the elections in May and June of 2012. In reality, people went to the banks and withdrew their money. That is something that no one in my position could say… There was a very painful process. And there was the process of supplying Greece with cash. The plane would leave from Elefsina, go to Italy and return with cash which went to the Bank of Greece where it was shared out to the banks. We never reported that. We never had the right to report it. And obviously I can’t tell you who gave me that information but I got it from people who knew all of the details.”

To not report on an incipient bank run while it is underway can be considered justifiable.

Journalists have a duty to inform, but also to be judicious with the information they obtain when releasing it may cause more harm than good - as in the case of a bank run. However it appears that the decision by Ms Spyraki - and by extension Mega TV itself (it is incredibly unlikely that the editors at the station did not have the same information as Ms Spyraki) may have been less motivated by a desire to act in the public interest and more by a desire to fit the facts to supporting a hard pro-Memorandum line.

Why, after the banking crisis had passed, did the station not report the story about the secret flights?

Why did more than a year have to pass before the story was reported first in the British press?

Was it not in the public interest to know the lengths the eurozone leaders were willing to go to in order to prevent Greece from exiting the euro?

Perhaps even more revealing than Ms Spyrakis’s revelation was another admission by Mega TV’s news anchor Yiannis Pretenderis. In a January 2013 interview regarding a book written by the anchor about the crisis with iefimerida.gr, Pretenderis said the following when asked about errors the press had made during the crisis:

      “The restructuring of the debt: we all knew from the first moment that it wasn’t sustainable, but they told us, don’t say it now, it’s not right. The result was that until 2012 everyone maintained that the debt was sustainable and we didn’t respond, ‘not it isn’t!’ We didn’t tell them that this is nonsense. That was self-restraint.”

Can anyone really blame Greeks for feeling misled by the press as well as the political class when one of the top news anchors in the country effectively admits that he failed to challenge outright lies for months?

Who did that benefit?

Mainstream media in Greece, and particularly Mega Channel, have been criticized because of their ‘incestuous’ (as the State Department qualified the relationship in a now infamous Wikileaks cable) link to the country’s political and business establishment.

According to a 2012 Reuters special report, a nexus of media, business and politics lies behind the country's crisis.

Both Spyraki and Pretenderis worked (and still work) for Mega Channel, a TV station controlled in part by the Bobolas family which has extensive business interests spanning the sectors of construction, highway concessions, waste management, and mining. The family also holds important stakes in newspapers that have been loyal in their support for all governments since the 2009 fiscal crisis.

But while channels like Mega are often more than happy to slam the country’s politicians when it suits them (politicians that they often helped elect), they have been far less willing to turn their criticism on themselves.

The Greek media needs to look long and hard at itself and to make changes if it is to regain the public’s trust.

For democracies to function properly they require a well-informed citizenry. And that can only happen if those responsible for providing information do so objectively in the interest of the public, and not in the service of specific policies, concealing inconvenient facts. Abusing information is what got Greece into its current mess (through concealing the height of its deficits) and once in a hole, one should stop digging.

PressProject

BRAINWASH ALERT - Mainstram Media Says War is Peace, & Makes Us Rich & Safe

Image: An Iraqi woman with her dead child. Source: A Real Cost Of The Iraq War

By Julie Lévesque (Global Research) - War is Peace. What was known as a famous quote from George Orwell’s fiction 1984 has become a reality. Or maybe it is still fiction if you consider that the mainstream media is making up reality on a daily basis.

On April 28, 2014, the homepage of The Washington Post web site featured the picture of a nuclear explosion with the following title: “War is brutal. The alternative is worse.”

Peace is worse than war? Diplomacy worse than a nuclear explosion? I wonder if people in war torn Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the likes agree.

The subtitle is probably the apex of nonsense: “War may be the worst way imaginable to create peaceful societies, but this professor argues that it’s the only way.” Professor? How can you be a professor and say something so illogical? And how can a newspaper be taken seriously when it publishes such absurdities?

But it gets worse, if that’s even possible. Clicking on the article, you get this:

“Wars make us safer and richer”. Wow. Really?

Who’s “us”? Certainly not the American people:

      The decade-long American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would end up costing as much as $6 trillion, the equivalent of $75,000 for every American household, calculates the prestigious Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government…
      It is also imperative to recall that the Bush administration had claimed at the very outset that the Iraq war would finance itself out of Iraqi oil revenues, but Washington DC had instead ended up borrowing some $2 trillion to finance the two wars, the bulk of it from foreign lenders
     According to the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government 2013 report, this accounted for roughly 20 per cent of the total amount added to the US national debt between 2001 and 2012.
      According to the report, the US “has already paid $260 billion in interest on the war debt,” and future interest payments would amount to trillions of dollars. (Sabir Shah, US Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq to Cost $6 trillion).

So, who’s “us” getting richer? The bankers maybe? Because if war makes some people rich, it’s the bankers:

Bankers are often the driving force behind war.

     After all, the banking system is founded upon the counter-intuitive but indisputable fact that banks create loans first, and then create deposits later.
     In other words, virtually all money is actually created as debt…
     Debt (from the borrower’s perspective) owed to banks is profit and income from the bank’s perspective.  In other words, banks are in the business of creating more debt … i.e. finding more people who want to borrow larger sums...
      What does this have to do with war?
      War is the most efficient debt-creation machine…
      War is also good for banks because a lot of material, equipment, buildings and infrastructure get destroyed in war. So countries go into massive debt to finance war, and then borrow a ton more to rebuild. (Washington’s Blog, War Creates Massive Debt and Makes the Banks Rich).

“Us” is probably also the military industrial complex, for which peace is enemy number one:

      The fact that military activities may become a profitable enterprise leads to the realization that peace is the main enemy of the military-industrial complex.  A simple metaphor can illustrate this problem.  Grape growers, the wine industry and wine marketers would be completely out of business if people stopped drinking wine.  In a similar way, the military-industrial complex would be put out of business by lasting peaceful conditions because the development, production, marketing and use of military equipment would be not needed.
      To stay in business, this complex needed the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the “cold war” with the Soviet Union, war on terrorism and various other wars.  And it needs to be involved in new conflicts, such as in Ukraine at this time. (Vashek Cervinka, Peace is the Enemy of the US Military Industrial Complex)

WE, the people of the world, don’t want wars and WE are not getting “richer” and “safer” with wars. It’s actually quite the contrary. Wars ruin economies and guess what? Wars kill people! How are mass killings and massive debts making “us safer and richer”?

Even though he received the Stanford University Dean’s Award, which “recognizes the efforts of exceptional teachers in the School of Humanities and Sciences” and is “given for excellence in graduate education” and “achievements in teaching”, Professor Morris seems to ignore the existence of what is probably the most important judgement in the history of mankind, The Nuremberg Judgement, which says:

      To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.

We live in a world where award-winning Humanities and Science teachers promote war, the supreme international crime. It cannot get more Orwellian than that.

OPINION - When Heraclitus Met Greek Politics

The following article was written by Ambassador of Greece to the United States, 2005-2009 Mr. Alexandros P. Mallias. After reading it on the Huffington Post HellasFrappe decided to republish it. The article, which clearly manipulates classic Greek (common) logic as its base to get a new political message across, and is obviously a great promo piece to To Potami's leader Stavros Theodorakis. It is also comes to prove that Theodorakis has friends in (very) high places! We advise our readers to absorb the logic behind this article and how it analyzes the political world, and totally ignore the clear patting on the back to Theodorakis.

Thucydides, Pericles, Socrates and Aristotle are the preferred references in the search of the logic, if logic exists, in understanding politics in modern Athens, Thebes, Corinth and Sparta.

For more than one reason a modern disciple of Heraclitus, who visited Ephesus only a few weeks ago, took the risky step to join politics in Hellas.

Defying the calls of his friends and advisers for prudence and against all odds, he decided to join a party -- a movement rather than a party -- without aparatchiks, structures, politburos, etc.

It is no surprise that the new party that will contest in the uneven campaign for the European Parliament Elections scheduled for May 25 is named To Potami ( The River). In contemporary terms Heraclitus is considered to be a postmodern thinker. His thoughts transcend time, place, continents.

Heraclitus taught me that :

• air dies giving birth to fire. Fire dies giving birth to air. Thus water is born of earth, and earth of water.
• the river where you set your foot just now is gone and a new one is constantly formed.
• the way up is the way back.
• just as the river where I step is not the same, and it is, so am I, as I am not.

Can a party with no politicians meet the challenge and make the edge in Greek politics? Can it change the course, sidelining the political oligarchies that have been ruling Greece for roughly 70 years, often accused of lack of ethos, accountability and common sense?

Two weeks ago, I met To Potami's leader Stavros Theodorakis, a self-made man and articulate journalist. I did not hesitate for a moment to accept his invitation. The candidates of the Euro elections ticket are not politicians. They have all successfully served the country and the society. They have excelled in business, academia, medicine, farming.

     Our motto is "for a strong Greece in a more just Europe."

A United Europe cannot be achieved with divided Europeans along the north-south or south-north dividing lines. We say yes, to a Europe which will show respect for the dignity of its citizens. But to change Europe, we must first change the course of politics at home.

Heraclitus insists that "the beginning is the end" and that "without injustice the name of justice would mean nothing."In family, in society and in politics it is clear that "one's bearing shapes one's fate."

Heraclitus is what was really missing from politics today in Greece.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-alexandros-p-mallias/heraclitus-to-potami_b_5232968.html?1398786528

Happy May Day & Int’l Labor Day To All Frappers Everywhere!

It’s May Day, and for all those living outside of North America it is also International Workers and/or Labor Day. In Greece workers hold massive rallies in protest to labor laws, and parallel to this people all over the country celebrate the Festival of Flowers (a celebration with ancient roots). It is also the start of the warmer six months of the year in the northern hemisphere.

This year, May Day comes at the end of a six-year recession in Greece and in the midst of an economic crisis, so governments across the European continent are bracing for large protest marches. Athens' annual May Day March, which traditionally begins outside of the Greek parliament in the city's main square, will once again probably end in clashes between police and hard-core protesters (as it has every year).

Greece, which some Leftists claim has lost its democracy, is probably the only country in the world where strikes and protests are a national pastime. People protest freely in this country and each event has its own rhythm and purpose. Insignificant protests occur daily, and larger gatherings with many different causes and grievances are organized every so often as well: (Example: Anti-American, anti-globalization, anti-capitalist, anti-war, pro-worker, pro-immigrant, pro-animal rights, etc.). In some cases, separate protests that are organized by different groups -but that are in the same geographic area- meld together and then separate again, like globs of oil floating in water. And the protests held on May Day are no exception.

The history of traditional May Day celebrations in Europe dates back to before the time of Christ. The day is actually considered a pagan holiday and let us not forget that the word May is derived from the Greek word Maia who was a Goddess in Ancient Olympia.

In Greece, aside from the protests it is also a day for celebrating flowers, and what better way to celebrate then making flower wreaths. According to tradition, women and young girls go from house to house to steal flowers, or flower pots from the gardens of their neighbors. They then use these flowers to make wreaths, which they then hang on their front porches for prosperity and luck. The flower wreaths themselves, as well as all the other flora that is used to decorate Greek homes today represent the birth of life and nature as well as the blessing every home needs for a bountiful season.

May Day is also an excuse for Greek people to take a small road trip to the countryside. While there they enjoy quality time with family and friends and most importantly they pick wildflowers, herbs and even edible greens. Also they make garlands. Quite interestingly, making garlands has been a traditional custom in Europe dating back to ancient time, and till this day it continues to be an important part of the May Day. (The garlands represent the ushering in of summer).

Another custom involves the gathering and erecting of the maypole. Locals go into the woods gather the required wood needed to make the base, and then they decorate it with flowers and garlands. They then set up the maypole in the center of their towns and/or villages and the celebration begins. People dance and sing around the maypole to celebrate the day. When the day draws near, people then light up a bonfire and begin leaping over the flames for luck. (Of course before they do this, they wet their clothes and bodies thoroughly for safety).

International Customs on May Day

ENGLAND - In England, May Day traditions include university students in pagan rituals, playing madrigal music, and dancing at sunrise in celebrations at Durham and Oxford. A Jack in the Green carnival has been revived in towns such as Whitstable, Rochester, Hastings, Bristol, and Oxford, where the traditional figure dressed as a tree leads a parade of Morris dancers and others. Hordes of motorbike riders set off from London each year in the Maydayrun and travel the 55 miles to Hastings to join its Jack in the Green festivities. There is maypole dancing and plenty of singing and dancing in the streets. Other Cornish towns hold a Flower Boat Ritual, where a model boat is taken past decorated houses to the beach and set afloat. Maypole dancing and Morris dancing are popular too.

GERMANY - Germany has a May Day slogan of ‘Tanz in den Mai’ or ‘Dance into May’. On the eve of May Day, there are traditional pagan ceremonies such as bonfires and maypole decorating. In western areas, males send their girlfriends a tree or maypole adorned with streamers. May Day itself is popular for picnics and other outings.

FRANCE - In France, men give women a lily sprig, a ritual that started when Charles IX did this on 1 May 1561. A woman traditionally kisses the man who gave her the branch. Vendors set up stalls and sell these sprays and don’t have to pay tax on the profits.

FINLAND - Finland starts May Day festivities with its Walpurgis Night on the eve of the holiday. The event is one of the country’s three largest celebrations, the others being New Year’s Eve and the midsummer Juhannas, and there are bonfires and plenty of eating, drinking, and partying, with festivities carrying over to the next day. Similar nights are held in Sweden, Germany, Estonia, and Czech Republic. Large picnics are organized in Finnish

SPAIN & PORTUGAL - Spain and Portugal have celebrated May Day as a labour day since the end of their dictatorship eras several decades ago. In Italy, traditional May Day celebrations include ‘Concerto del Primo Maggio’, or ‘1 May’s Concert’, attracting a crowd of over 300,000

HUNGARY - In Hungary, people dance round ‘May trees’.  In the Jászság (between the rivers Danube and Tisza), May trees are usually decorated with colourful paper ribbons. Some suitors also attach gifts for their sweethearts, such as a bottle of wine. On Palóc territories (Northern Hungary), the man would only erect the trees, leaving it to be decorated by the girl and her mother.

NORTHERN EUROPE - Scandinavian countries, and Russia all hold annual parades, meetings, and demonstrations to celebrate labour achievements on May Day

SCOTLAND - In St. Andrews Scotland, some of the students gather on the beach late on April 30th and run into the North Sea at sunrise on May Day. This is accompanied by torch light processions and much enthusiastic celebration

IRELAND - In Ireland, May Day has been celebrated in Ireland since pagan times as the Feast of Bealtaine and in latter times as Mary's day. Bonfires are lit to mark the coming of summer and to banish the long nights of winter. (Irish Mayday Bank Holiday is now officially observed on the first Monday in May). In modern times May Day is associated with anti-government rallies which are held every year on this date. The Festival of the Fires in Killare, Co.Westmeath marks the celebration of May Day.

SWEDEN - In Sweden Mayday is denoted "First of May" ("Första maj" in Swedish) and has been a public holiday in Sweden since 1939. The main events on Mayday are political demonstrations carried out by the working class organisations and political parties historically associated with the working class movement.

PACIFIC - In the Pacific and specifically in Hawaii May Day is known as Lei Day and is normally set aside to celebrate island culture in general and Native Hawaiian culture in particular. While it was invented by a poet and a local newspaper columnist in the 1920s, it has since been adopted by state and local government as well as by the residents, and it has taken on a sense of a general spring celebration there.

AMERICAS - In the Americas, May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the American Continent. In some parts of the United States May baskets are made. These are small and usually filled with flowers or treats and left at some one's doorstep. The basket giver would ring the bell and run away. The person receiving the basket would try to catch the fleeing giver. If they caught the person, a kiss was to be exchanged.

Superstitions

The month of May was considered an unlucky month particularly for getting married. In Greece they say only donkeys get married in Ma, nevertheless many people hold their weddings this month.

Other known and unknown superstitions claim that:

• if you are born in May then you are a sickly child.
• you should never buy a broom in May or wash blankets because it brings bad luck (strange!!).
• if a cat gives birth to kittens this month then these kittens would not be talened in catching rodents in the future, and what is even worse, they will bring snakes into your homes.
• the most unlucky days this month are 3rd, 6th, 7th, 13th, 15th and 20th (you have been warned, so don't bet your savings on your favorite lotto with the above numbers).

Famous Quotes

• "A wet May makes a big load of hay. A cold May is kindly and fills the barn finely. "
• “A swarm of bees in May… Is worth a load of hay.”
• "Mist in May, Heat in June… Makes harvest come right soon"
• "If you wash a blanket in May; you will wash one of the family away."
• "Those who bathe in May… Will soon be laid in clay"

References:

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1450912/Ma y-Day
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1961730.stm
• http://www.theholidayspot.com/mayday/history.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%2 7_Day#Europe
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day

HellasFrappe Team