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The Greek language spoken on the island has a distinct
Cretan Greek dialect with an extended vocabulary that
is Crete-specific.
Cretan
wine and
tsikoudia, a potent distillate, are the traditional
drinks. Crete has its own distinctive
Mantinades poetry. The island is known for its
Mantinades-based
music (typically performed with the
Cretan
lyra and the
laouto) and has many indigenous dances, the most noted
of which is probably the
Pentozali. Cretan authors have made important
contributions to
Greek
Literature throughout the modern period; major names include
Vikentios Kornaros, creator of the 17th century epic
romance
Erotokritos (Greek Ερωτόκριτος), and in the 20th
century
Nikos
Kazantzakis. In the Renaissance, Crete was the home of the
Cretan School of icon painting, which influenced
El Greco and through him subsequent European
painting.
Cretans are fiercely proud of their island and customs, and men
often don elements of their traditional dress in everyday life: knee-high black
riding boots, black shirts and black headdress consisting of a fishnet-weave
kerchief worn wrapped around the head or draped on the shoulders. Black is the
color of mourning, and since Cretan families are notionally considered so
extended as to include greatgrandparents or second cousins (although they may
have little actual contact) as well as all their respective in-laws, one is
theoretically justified to be in continuous mourning for some relative or other,
however distant. On festive occasions those who are not in mourning wear
white.
Economy
The economy of Crete, which was mainly based on farming, and
fishing, began to change visibly during the 1970s. While an emphasis remains on
farming and stock breeding, due to the climate and terrain of the island, there
has been a drop in manufacturing and an observable expansion in its service
industries (mainly tourism-related). All three sectors of the Cretan economy
(agriculture, processing-packaging, services), are directly connected and
interdependent. The island has a per capita income close to 100% of the Greek
average, while unemployment is at approximately 4%, ½ of that of the country
overall. As in other regions of Greece,
olive
growing is also a significant industry; a small amount of
citrons are still cultivated on the island. The
eastern
part of the island is most developed as agriculture region of Crete.
Tourism
Crete is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Greece.
Fifteen percent of all arrivals in Greece come through the city of
Heraklion (port and airport), while charter journeys to
Heraklion last year made up 20% of all charter flights
in Greece. Overall, more than two million tourists visited Crete last year, and
this increase in tourism is reflected on the number of hotel beds, rising by 53%
in the period between 1986 and 1991, when the rest of Greece saw increases of
only 25%. Today, the island's tourism infrastructure caters to all tastes,
including a very wide range of accommodation; the island's facilities take in
large luxury hotels with their complete facilities, swimming pools, sports and
recreation, smaller family-owned apartments, camping facilities and others.
Visitors reach the island via two international airports in Heraklion and
Chania, or by boat to the main ports of Heraklion,
Chania,
Rethimno and
Agios Nikolaos. Popular tourist attractions include the
archaeological sites of the Minoan civilisation, the Venetian old city and port
of
Chania, the Venetian castle at
Rethymno, the gorge of Samaria, the islands of
Chrysi,
Elafonisi,
Gramvousa, and
Spinalonga.
Archaeological sites
here are a large number of archaeological sites which include the
Minoan sites of
Knossos and
Phaistos, the classical site of
Gortys, and the diverse archaeology of
Koufonisi, Crete which includes Minoan, Roman and World
War II ruins.
Enviromentally protected areas
There are a number of environmentally protected areas. One such
area is located at the island of
Elafonisi on the coast of southwestern Crete. Also, the
palm forest of
Vai and the
Dionysades islands, close to the coast of northwestern
Crete, have diverse animal and plant life. Vai has a palm beach and the largest
natural palm forest in Europe. The island of
Chrysi, 15 km south of
Ierapetra, has the largest naturally grown
Lebanon
Cedar forest in Europe.
Development
Newspapers have reported that the Ministry of Mercantile Marine is
ready to support the agreement between Greece,
South
Korea,
Dubai
Ports World and
China
for the construction of a large international
container port and
free
trade zone in southern Crete near
Tympaki; the plan is to expropriate 850 ha of land. The
port would handle 2 million containers per year, while as of 2007, there has
been no official announcement of a project not universally welcomed due to its
environmental, economic and cultural impact.
[1] As of January 2009,
it appears the project has been canceled, in part due to the strong opposition
from the local population, mostly on environmental grounds.
[2]
Crete-immigration-Holiday homes
Crete's mild climate attracts interest from
northern
Europeans who want a holiday home or residence on the island.
EU citizens have the right to freely buy property and
reside with little formality.
[3] A growing number of
real estate companies cater to mainly British expatriates, followed by
German,
Dutch,
Scandinavian and other European nationalities wishing
to own a home in Crete. The
British expatriates are concentrated in the western
prefectures of
Chania and
Rethymno and to a lesser extent in
Heraklion and
Lasithi.
Neolithic settlement
Minoan civilization
Crete was the center of
Europe's first advanced civilization, the
Minoan (c. 2700-1420 BC).
[5] This civilization
wrote in the undeciphered script known as
Linear
A. Early
Cretan
history is replete with legends such as those of
King
Minos,
Theseus,
Minotaur,
Daedalus and
Icarus
passed on orally via poets such as
Homer.
Beginning in 1420 BC, the Minoan civilization was overrun by the
Mycenean
civilization from mainland Greece. The oldest samples of writing in
the Greek language is the
Linear
B archive from Knossos, dated approximately to 1425-1375 BC.
[6]
Mythology
Crete has a rich mythology mostly connected with the ancient
Greek
Gods but also connected with the Minoan civilization. The
labyrinth of the palace of Knossos has the myth of
Theseus and the Minotaur where the
Minotaur was slayed by
Theseus. The
Paximadia islands are believed to be the birthplace of
the goddess
Artemis and the god
Apollo. Their mother, the goddess
Leto,
was worshipped at
Phaistos.
Europa
and
Zeus made love at
Gortys
and conceived the Kings of the Minoan civilization.
King Minos became a judge of the dead in
Hades.
The goddess
Athena bathed in Lake Voulismeni. The ancient Greek god
Zeus launched a lightning bolt at a giant lizard that
was threatening Crete. The lizard immediately turned to stone and became the
island of
Dia. The island can be seen from Knossos and it has the
shape of a giant lizard. The islets of
Lefkai were the result of a musical contest between the
Sirens
and the
Muses.
After losing the contest the Sirens were so distraught that their wings fell
off, turned white, and fell into the sea at
Souda
Bay where they formed the islets.
Music of Crete- local instruments and the ancient
instrument-Cretan Lyra
The
music of Crete is a traditional form of
Greek folk
music called κρητικά (kritika). The
lyra is the dominant folk instrument on the island;
there are three-stringed and four-stringed versions of this bowed string
instrument, closely related to the medieval
Byzantine
lyra. It is often accompanied by the Cretan
lute
(laoúto), which is similar to both an
oud and a
mandolin.
Thanassis Skordalos and
Kostas
Moundakis are the most renowned players of the lyra.
The earliest documented music on Crete comes from
Ancient Greece. Cretan music like most traditional
Greek began as product of ancient, Byzantine, western and eastern inspirations.
The main instrument lyra, is closely related to the bowed
Byzantine lyra. The Persian geographer
Ibn Khordadbeh (d. 911) of the 9th Century, in his
lexicographical discussion of instruments, cited the
Byzantine
lyra (Greek:
λύρα -
lūrā), as similar to the Arabic
rebab and a typical Byzantine instrument along with the
urghun (organ),
shilyani (probably a type of harp or lyre) and
the
salandj [1]. Bowed instruments
descendants of the Byzantine bowed lyra (lūrā) have continued to be played in
post-Byzantine regions until the present day with few changes, for example the
Calabrian
Lira in
Italy,
the
Cretan
Lyra, the
Gadulka in
Bulgaria, and the
Armudî kemençe (or πολίτικη λύρα) in
Istanbul, Turkey.
Following the
Crusades, however, the
Franks,
Venetians and
Genoese
dominated the island and introduced new instruments and genres and in particular
the three-stringed
lira da
braccio. By the end of the 14th century, a poetic form called
mantinada became popular; it was a rhyming couplet of
fifteen syllables. The introduction of the
violin
by the end of 17th century was especially important.
Some of the earliest popular music stars from Crete were
Andreas Rodinos,
Yiannis Bernidakis (Baxevanis),
Stelios Koutsourelis,
Stelios Foustalieris,
Efstratios Kalogeridis,
Kostas Papadakis,
Michalis Kounelis,
Kostas
Mountakis and
Thanassis Skordalos. Later, in the 1960s, musicians
like
Nikos
Xylouris and
Yiannis Markopoulos combined Cretan folk music with
classical techniques. For the above choices, Nikos Xylouris received the
negative criticism of conservative fans of the Cretan music but he remained
popular, as did similarly-styled performers like
Charalambos Garganourakis and
Vasilis Skoulas. Nowadays, prominent performers include
Antonis Xylouris or
Psarantonis,
Giorgis
Xylouris,
Ross
Daly,
Stelios Petrakis,
Vasilis Stavrakakis, the group
Chainides,
Zacharias Spyridakis,
Michalis Stavrakakis,
Mitsos Stavrakakis,
Dimitrios Vakakis,
Georgios Tsantakis,
Michalis Tzouganakis,
Elias Horeftakis,
Giannis Charoulis, etc.
As Magrini (1997) has argued, modern marketing of Cretan music has
concentrated on the lyra as the most distinctive Cretan instrument, to the
extent that other instruments are seldom heard. This includes the violin, as
well as the bagpipes [askomadoura].
