Guest article by Anna Avramidou – It’s been a lot of excitement these past few days! We have been living in our new home in Agios Dimitrios since the summer. We bought a small house here, in the middle of nature. I had heard a lot about the close-knit community in this small village. That was also one reason why we chose this place. It was important to us to break out of the anonymity that we often experienced in Germany and find a real community, with all its advantages, disadvantages and challenges.

I had taken a lot of pictures of what our life would be like up here in the small mountain village, about 6 km from the sea. Would it be too much for me if nice neighbors wanted to be close to us? Would I be able to meet the demands that would be placed on me as a new member of the village community?

Would we perhaps be immediately overrun out of curiosity about who “the new guys” are?

As is so often the case, everything turned out completely differently…

After the first few weeks, I was surprised that I was sitting alone in my little house. I missed the people and the place that had been our home for our first two years on the island. Nobody really noticed us. Thank God, my friend Ursula, who has lived in the same village for over 30 years, stopped by every now and then.

Too much attention would have overwhelmed me, but I didn’t find anything strange.

Our son Leander also had to fight his battles in the “new pack” at the age of eleven. People here still live in a very archaic way. Now that he was “the new guy” in the village, he first had to fight for his place in the new community (yes – unfortunately in the truest sense of the word). As a mother who has always been in favor of peaceful solutions, it was difficult for me to see how he sometimes came home either injured or crying and completely exhausted.

The parents of the other children reacted completely differently.

It was so interesting to see how the adults here deal with it. In Germany, with my older sons, I often experienced that the parents dealt with the children’s conflicts. Often the children had long since gotten along again while the parents no longer spoke to each other. Here, on Ikaria, all I ever heard was the sentence: “They have to sort it out themselves, they are just children.” I felt a great deal of trust in the children’s abilities. Of course we talked a lot with Leander about his challenges. We always told him: “Tell us if we should take action.” That meant if we should talk to the relevant children, parents or teachers, then let us know. But except for once, it never got that far. But it took a lot of strength for us to endure his pain. Of course, our own insecurities and memories from our childhood were reflected here.

So how do we manage to take our place in this society?

The answer came from Ursula. “Open your house on January 1st!” she said. Okay, what was that supposed to mean? Ursula describes it in her blog about the island of Ikaria: “January 1st is a very special day in my village, in Ag. Dimitrios. The tables are set and the houses are opened so that the whole village can celebrate the first anniversary together, come into the houses and wish the owners a happy new year. “Na ta pume?” (Shall we sing for you?) is always asked when entering with many good wishes and then the Kalanda is sung. “Kali chronia!” (a good year!) is what you wish for.”

She explained to me that this way the entire village would be invited to our house and give us blessings for the new year. What better opportunity could there be?!

So the day came when I was awake at half past six in the morning because of excitement (and that after New Year’s Eve…). We had bought 15 bottles of wine, fried lots of small keftedakia (small meatballs) and cooked lots of other “finger food”. Ursula said: “You run around and feed the guests so that they don’t leave your house hungry.

And then it was time!

After the usual delays (that’s Ikaria) and after a few visits that we and everyone made to the houses together, we snuck away from the “herd” like everyone who is next in line does and opened our door . What followed was an incredibly beautiful and touching event. Almost 60 people, whether young or old, with guitars, bouzuki and drums (Adoni, the drummer is only eleven years old!), visited us in our house, sang the Kalanda songs for us, welcomed us to the village and wished us blessed new year. After about half an hour it was all over and together with the others we moved on to the next house. From what I heard, that evening ended at 5 o’clock in the morning, in the last house on the other side of the village.

Dieses Erlebnis fühlt sich für mich an wie ein Einweihungsritual. Und noch heute fühle ich mich ganz leicht und freudig, da wir nun offiziell Mitglieder dieser Gemeinschaft sind.

I captured a few impressions from that day in the little film. Of course, a visit to our house is also included!

Anna and her family emigrated from Germany to Ikaria two years ago. She works in the field of “mindful marketing”. You can find more information on her blog SoundWorld.

My film tip: The German-language culture clash comedy: Highway to Hellas – hilarious, lovable, cynical, honest, so funny! Could play in Ikaria! The story takes place on the fictional Greek island of Paladiki against the backdrop of the financial crisis. The island community received a loan from a German bank for its eco-tourism project “Galapagos in Greece” and pledged its non-existent power station, hospital and beach as security… Buy here