The carnival tradition in Naoussa, Greece is unique. Credit: Anastasiapanag/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0Greece is a country where the annual Carnival season is closely linked to its rich and very ancient folklore tradition.
Dozens of beloved local festivities take place each late Winter across the entire country. However, very few have as deep links with the nation’s ancient and more recent past as the custom of the ”Genitsari and Boules,” or simply ”Boules,” of Naoussa, in northern Greece.
The history of the Naoussa Carnival
This custom is definitely among the oldest Greek traditions which have managed to survive to this very day.
Folklore experts agree that the festival’s dancing, as well as other elements incorporated into its mystical nature, has elements from ancient Greece — and more specifically, with those linked to rituals honoring Dionysus, the god of wine, pleasure, festivity, madness and wild frenzy.
Apart from these elements, however, the tradition is also deeply linked with Naoussa’s much more recent, bitter struggle against Ottoman rule.
