“This story always came out effortlessly and naturally, like a deep breath, or, more like a sigh of sympathy, but also like a spell – ‘lest such evil befall us’ – from the mouth of our lady-mother every August, when it was customary on the days near the moon’s yomima for all the women of the village to come down together, young and old, in the river, to wash and pass the heavy flakes, the kilims and the garbage, to be ready for the heavy winter, which always started early in our place, there near St. Demetrius…”. And the story begins
“The Gift of the Moon” is a story, a narrative about the river, about Aoos and its people, a story that “time kneaded it with the word and unpretentiousness. These are the stories that have managed to reach today thanks to people who have heard them and experienced them as true. One such story was recorded by Kostas Tziovas.
“The Charisma of the Moon” by Kostas Tziovas, the non-profit civil company “Pindos Perivallontiki” undertook to make it a printed publication but also to give it a narrative character.
For this reason he proceeded to the production of a cd, with the storyteller Virginia Kokkinou telling “The Gift of the Moon”, after the necessary adaptation for the story’s narration-arrangement.
This cd will be made available as educational material to the schools of Ioannina in the framework of the project “Aoos: saving the last free-flowing river of Europe”, which is implemented by “Pindos Environmental” in cooperation with international partners Ecoalbania, EuroNatur, RiverWatch, IUCNECARO, MedINA and Tour du Valat, with the vision of creating the first transboundary national park Aoos-Vjosa in Europe.
At the same time, anyone interested can listen to the story through YouTube and the website https://pindosperivallontiki.org, or purchase the CD (free of charge) from the offices of “Pindos Environmental” (12 Metsovo, tel. 2651029445).
The story has been recorded in both Greek and English.
For the production of the cd they collaborated:
Kostas Tziovas: writing, Virginia Kokkinou: narration, YannisPsariotis: music, guitar, percussion, HarisLambrakis: Nay, IoannaBoulougari: percussion, Maria Alatsatianou: singing, AchilleasHachamis: singing, Nikos Platyrrachos: sound recording, Elias Lakka: mastering. Foreword: Foreword by Nikos Sfairopoulos, Cover Design by Katerina Vrazitouli.