Greeks let loose in sticky, messy custom

Its been a tough two years for Greece so for some of its citizens there was no better way to forget their worries than taking part in a holiday custom called the Flour War.In the coastal fishing town of Galaxidi, 200 kilometres west of Athens, Greeks from around the country and tourists took part in one of the countrys most famous events in honour of Shrove Monday.To mark the end of carnival, villagers celebrate Shrove Monday, as its known in the Orthodox calendar, by donning goggles, face masks, plastic suits, and cow bells. They also arrived with hundreds of small bags filled with more than two tonnes of coloured sticky baking flour.Scores of participants met in the central streets of the village, firing flour bombs at their opponents, trying to douse them with as much flour as possible.Houses and boats in the quay were covered with plastic, as the ritual lasted for hours and turned into one sticky mess.The tradition attracts visitors from across the country as well tourists from abroad.Some spectators watched from a distance as the battle took place, and the sky filled with flour.Its an escape, this helps you to forget, a lot of people come here, but they dont have a lot of money to spend, so this is good, said Eliza Dourouto from the northern city of Edessa.No matter what happens the Greeks wont lose their sense of humour, their sense of fun, its in our blood, no matter how many cutbacks there are, said Vangelis Harasias, from the neighbouring town of Itea.The towns citizens fund the event themselves, and even the crisis was not going to break a tradition that dates back more than 200 years.The custom has been taking place for decades and is believed to have originated in 1801 when Galaxidi residents defied the Ottoman rulers occupying Greece back then by celebrating the forbidden carnival and painting their faces with ash while dancing through the streets. Eventually ash was replaced by coloured flour and evolved into the modern event.