| Sochos, this small market town some forty miles | | | | appeared not during the pre-Lenten Carnival |
| northeast of Thessaloniki is renowned for its | | | | period, but on the feast of Saint Theodore, on |
| carnival. The chief character is the karnavali, | | | | the weekend after Clean Monday, and during the |
| dressed in a goatskin shirt and leggings, a tall | | | | Lenten fast. Local people charge a Church hostile |
| conical hat covered in multi-coloured streamers, | | | | to pagan survivals for the change of date. |
| known as the kalpak, a sequined mask with a long | | | | In the recent change of the date of this |
| horse-hair moustache sewn onto it, and five | | | | celebration we can see part of the process by |
| heavy bells hanging from his girdle. | | | | which the Church "tamed" pagan festivities, so as |
| As early as January, celebrants wearing bells begin | | | | to avoid breach of the Lenten fast, and so as to |
| to appear in the kafenions, where the men sing | | | | harmonise, as well as possible with the Christian |
| special songs. However, during the last week of | | | | calendar. We may suppose this to be something |
| Carnival they don full costume and roam the | | | | which had happened in many other places at an |
| streets with bottles of ouzo, which they offer to | | | | earlier date. It also helps explain why festivities |
| friends, relatives and passers-by, while performing | | | | which take place today, and which have pagan |
| a circular dance and sounding their bells. | | | | origins, may take place in different places at |
| There is a mystery about the carnival at Sochos. | | | | different times. |
| It is known that the masked figures originally | | | | |