Greece Honeymoon Packages

Greece honeymoon packages are trips for newlyweds across the Greek islands and mainland, led by a host. The sections look at Avgonyma on Chios, Kastellorizo, Fiskardo on Kefalonia, Samos Muscat and liastos, a sun-dried wine. They also cover old wedding customs: the epithalamium song, the loutrophoros vase, koufeta almonds and the Kalamatianos dance. Related pages cover Greece island hopping tours, Milos tours and Greece tour packages. Every other trip sits under Greece tours.

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What are Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages are trips for newlyweds through Greece, led by a host. A honeymoon is the holiday a couple takes after the wedding to celebrate the marriage. Couples today pick places they see as exotic or romantic for that holiday.

Greece honeymoon packages follow a custom that began in Britain in the early 19th century. Upper-class couples then took a “bridal tour” to see relatives who had missed the wedding. Friends or family sometimes travelled with the couple. From the 1820s, the French called the habit a voyage in the English fashion.

The name of Greece honeymoon packages comes from an English word recorded since 1546. At first, honeymoon meant the time after marriage, marked by love and happiness. The first recorded use for the holiday after a wedding came in 1791. That use came from a translated set of German folk tales.

Honeymoons as a holiday for the couple alone spread during the Belle Époque. That French name covers the late 1800s. The trend was among the first cases of mass tourism. A survey of 15 countries found an average of 75% of couples took a honeymoon. Greece honeymoon packages take place in Europe, where honeymoons win their greatest popularity.

• Beaches: Beach resorts are the preferred honeymoon setting for a great number of couples.
• Spread: From Britain, the honeymoon custom soon moved on to mainland Europe.
• Calque: French says lune de miel, a calque, meaning a word translated piece by piece from another language.

Greece honeymoon packages serve a purpose that varies by culture. In certain cultures, the trip is time to relax, share a memorable experience and adjust to married life. In original English writing, as opposed to translation, the word first appears in 1804.

Which story does Avgonyma give Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages share the North Aegean with Avgonyma, a small mountain village on Chios. Its close-set stone houses form a fortified medieval settlement. The village lies in the central-western part of the island, roughly 15 km west of Chios town.

Greece honeymoon packages unfold in a land where Avgonyma sits on a rocky hill at about 475 metres. Pine forest from Mount Provatas surrounds the village. From the hill, it looks west across the Aegean towards the island of Psara. Avgonyma has two parts, a lower one called Kato and an upper one called Epano.

Greece honeymoon packages take place in a country where local tradition dates Avgonyma to the 11th century. The builders of Nea Moni, a nearby monastery, are said to have settled there. Tradition also says pirates once destroyed the village. That attack is the reason given for its defensive, tightly packed houses.

By the 1960s, Avgonyma stood almost entirely empty. It escaped large modern rebuilding, and much of it is now restored in its old style. The 2011 census counted 14 permanent residents. They work mainly in farming and beekeeping, the keeping of bees for honey. Restored houses and tavernas, small Greek eating houses, support modest tourism.

• Tower: A medieval tower, or pyrgos, stands on the square facing the church of Saint George.
• Name: It is widely agreed that the name does not come from avgo, the Greek word for egg.
• People: Its people are called Avgonymousoi in the local dialect, the area’s own form of Greek.

Greece honeymoon packages are set in a country where Avgonyma counts among the oldest villages of Chios. It is possibly older than the Middle Ages. A count from the early 1920s gave it about 500 people. A footpath, the Petsodos, once linked it to Chios town.

How does the epithalamium, an old Greek wedding song, fit into Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages take place in the land of the epithalamium, an ancient Greek wedding song. Its name joins the Greek words epi, upon, and thalamos, the marriage chamber. The poem celebrates the bride on her way to that chamber.

Among the Greeks, the epithalamium first praised both bride and bridegroom. A group of boys and girls sang it at the door of the couple’s room. One form rang out at night. Another came in the morning, to wake the newly married pair. Greece honeymoon packages run through the country where this custom started.

The song was full of blessings and forecasts of happiness for the pair. Now and then, an old chorus broke in with Hymen o Hymenaee. Hymen, also called Hymenaios, was the Greek god of marriage ceremonies. He was thought to attend every wedding. Without him, a marriage was expected to fail, so Greeks shouted his name.

Greece honeymoon packages belong to a country whose poets also sang a hymenaios, a second wedding song. It was sung as the bride moved in procession to the groom’s house. The epithalamium, by contrast, was sung at the threshold of the marriage chamber. Sappho, Anacreon, Stesichorus and Pindar are all seen as masters of the epithalamium.

• Idyll: The finest surviving Greek example is the 18th Idyll of Theocritus, on Menelaus and Helen’s marriage.
• Rome: The Roman poet Catullus wrote a famous one, possibly inspired by a lost poem of Sappho.
• Custom: Among the Romans, girls alone sang a similar song after the wedding guests had gone.

Greece honeymoon packages share their homeland with Sappho, a poet of the 7th to 6th century BCE. Her verses call on Hymen and ask builders to raise the bridal chamber high. In The Trojan Women by Euripides, Cassandra hails Hymen as king of marriage.

What does Kastellorizo add to Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages cover a country whose far eastern edge is Kastellorizo, officially called Megisti. Only the islet of Strongyli lies further east among Greek lands. This Dodecanese island sits roughly 2 kilometres from Turkey’s southern shore.

Megisti, the formal name, translates as biggest or greatest. Even so, the island covers only 11.98 square kilometres, less than any other Dodecanese island. The name points to its rank within its own small archipelago, or cluster, where no island is larger. The first part of Kastellorizo comes from castello, the Italian word for castle.

Greece honeymoon packages span a nation in which this island has one town, beside its main harbour. Its slim houses carry wooden balconies and windows like those of nearby Anatolia. A stone quay lines the harbour on all three of its sides. From the eastern quay, a path climbs to the 14th-century Castle of the Knights.

Greece honeymoon packages extend over a country where Kastellorizo is 6 km long and 3 km wide. Its limestone soil yields olives, grapes and beans in small amounts only. No natural supply of drinking water exists on the island. Among its sea caves is the Blue Grotto, much larger than the cave of that name in Capri.

• Distance: Kastellorizo sits 125 km east of Rhodes, near the midpoint between Rhodes and Antalya.
• Cathedral: Built in 1835, the Horafia quarter’s cathedral honours Saints Constantine and Helena.
• Museum: The former Ottoman mosque of the late 18th century reopened as a museum in 2007.

Greece honeymoon packages are trips through a country where this island also carries the name Castelrosso. That Italian name means Red Castle. West of the town, beyond the 270-metre summit called Vigla, stands Palaiokastro. It was the island’s ancient acropolis, a fortified hilltop.

Why does the Muscat wine of Samos matter to Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages roam the homeland of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, a grape with Greek roots. This white wine variety is named for its small berries, packed in tight clusters. Within Greece, it is of greatest importance near Patras and on Samos.

On Samos, the grape makes a Vin Doux Naturel, French for natural sweet wine. It also gives aromatic dry whites. The finest wines come from vines planted 500 to 1000 metres above the sea. Samos now presents itself anew as a wine region. Fresh independent winemakers there now lean towards dry and sparkling styles.

Greece honeymoon packages cross a nation where people simply call this grape White Muscat, or Aspro Moschato. Ampelographers, experts who classify vines, link it with Anathelicon moschaton, a grape of the ancient Greeks. The Romans planted the same vines under the name Apiane. The name came from apis, Latin for bee, because bees loved eating the grapes.

The Greeks are thought to have first taken it to France, via their trading port at Marseille. The Romans later spread it to the Narbonne region. Near Patras, in the Peloponnese, it also makes a Vin Doux Naturel. Greece honeymoon packages are held in a land where Samos growers make private wines, mainly around Platanos village.

• Germany: Records show the grape planted in Germany by the 12th century, far from its Greek home.
• South Africa: The grape reached South Africa in the 18th century, carried far beyond Europe.
• Other names: Abroad, the grape goes by Moscato bianco, Muscat Canelli and Muskateller, among others.

Greece honeymoon packages happen in the grape’s homeland, yet the vine has travelled widely across Europe. Alsace had taken it up as a popular vine by the 16th century. In Bulgaria the grape is called Tamyanka, while in Serbia its name is Tamjanika.

Which old bridal custom does the loutrophoros bring to Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages are trips through the land of the loutrophoros, an ancient Greek pottery vessel. Its shape shows a long, stretched neck with two handles. The vessel carried water for a bride’s ritual bath before the wedding day.

The name joins two Greek words, loutron, meaning bathwater, and phero, meaning to carry. The wedding day itself, called the gamos, moved the bride from her father’s home to her husband’s. The day’s rituals opened with a nuptial, or wedding, bath for the bride. The bath stood for purification, or cleansing, and also for fertility.

Greece honeymoon packages take couples to a country whose ancient people wed mainly in winter. Weddings fell in the month of Gamelion, roughly equal to January. Gamelion translates as Wedding-Month. The choice honoured Hera, the goddess of marriage. The gamos started with a sacrifice, the proteleia, asking the gods to bless the pair.

The central ritual of the day was the anakalypteria, the removal of the bride’s veil. In the procession, the groom drove the still-veiled bride by chariot to his home. Greece honeymoon packages travel the land where torches once lit the whole bridal path. At the house, dried fruits and nuts showered the couple for fertility and prosperity.

• Funerals: The vessel also served at funerals, and tombs of unmarried people held it.
• Tombstones: Greek tombstones show the loutrophoros as a motif, carved in relief or shaped as a stone vessel.
• Offerings: After the bath, bride and groom made offerings at a temple for a fruitful future.

A wedding feast at the bride’s father’s home gathered both families. Men and women sat at separate tables, and the women waited until the men had finished. Greece honeymoon packages are trips across the land where relatives once brought gifts painted with romantic wedding scenes.

Where does Fiskardo sit in the story of Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages belong to the same nation as Fiskardo, a village on the Ionian island of Kefalonia. The village has been identified with Panormos, an ancient town. Herodotus, a Greek historian of the 5th century BC, mentioned that town.

In late 2005, workers by the harbour unearthed a plaque dating from ancient Greece. On it, Athenians thanked the Panormos community for permission to hunt in the area. A year later, builders working near the centre found a Roman-era grave complex. Inside lay gold jewellery, glassware, pottery and bronze items.

Greece honeymoon packages happen in a nation where this house-shaped complex measures 6.1 by 7.9 metres. Five burials lay inside, among them a stone coffin and a big vaulted tomb. Grave robbers missed the site, so it was untouched when opened. Its ancient door still swings smoothly on stone pivots.

Greece honeymoon packages sit in a country where digs at Fiskardo also uncovered a well-kept theatre. Its stone back rests are still in place. Other digs revealed houses, baths and a cemetery from Roman times, between 146 BC and 330 AD. Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, died at Atheras beach in 1085.

• Neighbour: Fiskardo stands a short distance from the island of Ithaca, across the water.
• Coast: Rocky shores with coves of pebble beaches surround the village.
• Trade: During the 18th century, Fiskardo served as the trading harbour of the Erisos area.

Couples on Greece honeymoon packages travel in a country where Fiskardo was once spelled Viscardo. Today the name also appears as Fiscardo. A small tourist trade has grown in recent years, centred on luxury villas around the village. The village lies 32 km north of Argostoli.

What do koufeta, the sugared almonds of Greek weddings, mean for Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages unfold in the homeland of koufeta, the sugar-coated almonds of Greek weddings. Close friends and family receive them as a gift from the couple. Tradition calls for an odd number of almonds, commonly seven and sometimes five.

Greece honeymoon packages tour a country whose koufeta are known in English as Jordan almonds. They are almonds sugar-panned in soft pastel colours, meaning coated with layers of sugar. They belong to the dragée family, bite-sized sweets with a hard outer shell. Couples hand them out as wedding favours, small gifts packed in bonbonnieres, or decorative boxes.

Greece honeymoon packages run in a country where koufeta come packed in groups of five. The five stand for happiness, health, long life, wealth and fertility. The English name Jordan is thought to be a twisted form of jardin, French for garden. Others link it to almonds first grown along the Jordan River.

These sweets are thought to descend from honey-covered almonds eaten in ancient Rome. An unverified legend names a Roman sweet maker, Julius Dragatus. He offered honeyed almonds, known as dragati, at weddings and births. Sugar became easier to obtain in the 15th century. Makers then coated the nuts in sugar instead of honey.

• Verdun: Verdun, a town in north-eastern France, won fame for its own dragées.
• Portugal: In Portugal, sugar-coated almonds are the traditional Easter treat instead of chocolate eggs.
• Sulmona: In the Italian town of Sulmona, confetti di Sulmona are used in decorative arrangements.

Greece honeymoon packages play out in a country where guests throw rice and flowers at departing newlyweds. The gesture wishes the couple fertility and happiness. In the past, dragées sometimes contained medicinal ingredients. Today they are eaten mainly as a sweet treat.

How does liastos, the sun-dried island wine, connect with Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages are trips in the homeland of liastos, a Greek word meaning sun-dried. In Greece, it is the word used for straw wine, which is also called passito. Greece and Cyprus are the original home of this style.

Straw wine is made from grapes dried away from the vine, which concentrates their juice. Under the classic method, careful hands pick the grapes and lay ripe bunches on mats in full sun. The mats were first made of straw, the dry stalks of cereal plants. Today, plastic nets from the olive harvest commonly serve instead.

Greece honeymoon packages explore a country where Hesiod, a Greek poet, described making raisin wine around 800 BC. Raisin wine is simply another name for straw wine. The drying method goes back to pre-Classical times, an age older than Classical Greece. Such wines then became fashionable in Roman times.

Greece honeymoon packages are hosted in the land that gave late medieval Europe its prized Malmsey. Malmsey was an old name for Malvasia wine. In certain regions, grapes drying in the sun are covered at night against the morning dew. In cooler, damper places, the whole drying process happens indoors, in huts, attics or greenhouses.

• Rule: The grapes must be cut from the vine for the wine to count as straw wine.
• Late harvest: Grapes left on the vine to over-ripen make a late harvest wine instead.
• Style: Straw wines are sweet to very sweet white wines, and they are capable of long ageing.

Greece honeymoon packages share the Aegean with Paros, Evvia, Tinos and Ikaria, all islands that make liastos. Traditionally, the bulk of straw wine has come from Greece, Sicily, Cyprus, northern Italy and the French Alps. Producers elsewhere now use the method too.

Why is the Kalamatianos dance part of the background to Greece honeymoon packages?

Greece honeymoon packages are set in the country of the Kalamatianos, a joyous Greek folk dance. Its music plays at special occasions such as weddings and Easter. Dancers form a chain and hold hands as the line turns counterclockwise.

Its beat has seven counts, split into three parts of three, two and two. Each bar holds three steps. The full dance has 12 steps across 4 bars of music. Of these, 10 steps move counterclockwise, or forward, and 2 move clockwise, or backwards. On certain occasions, skilled dancers turn steps into jumps or squats.

Greece honeymoon packages operate in a country whose dance roots go back to antiquity. Homer’s Iliad describes three performances around the spear of Achilles, danced in an open circle. In the Spartan hormos, a woman with a handkerchief drew a male partner into the line. The writer Lucian adds that young men and women formed an open ring for it.

In the 19th century, it was called Syrtos ho Peloponnesios, after the Peloponnese. Its present name is believed to come from Kalamata, in southern Greece. Greek dances commonly take the name of their home village or area. Greece honeymoon packages belong to a land of kalamatiano songs, such as Samiotissa, the girl from Samos.

• Handkerchief: The lead dancer holds the second by a handkerchief, freeing the leader for acrobatics.
• Song: One old song, Mou Pariggile To Aidoni, means the nightingale sent me a message.
• Jazz: Dave Brubeck, an American jazz composer, borrowed a version of its rhythm for Unsquare Dance.

Greece honeymoon packages run in a nation whose kalamatiano songs include To Papaki, meaning the duckling. Palamakia, another song of the dance, means clapping. Milo Mou Kokkino, a kalamatiano song, comes from Western Macedonia. Donald Swann used the rhythm in his Requiem for the Living.

What do travellers ask about Greece honeymoon packages, and what are the answers?

Greece honeymoon packages are trips through a nation whose weddings fall on a Saturday as a rule. Friday and Sunday weddings also take place. A typical Greek wedding has more than 100 invited guests, and 250 to 500 is common.

Before Greece honeymoon packages, what is the Krevati custom at a Greek wedding?

Krevati, Greek for bed, names a celebration held two or three days ahead of the wedding. The couple host it in their new home. Friends and relatives place money and young children on the new bed. The gesture wishes the pair prosperity and fertility. A party with food and music then follows.

For couples on Greece honeymoon packages, what does the shared glass of wine mean at a Greek wedding?

During the ceremony, the best man sets rings and wedding crowns on bride and groom. Bride and groom then share red wine from one glass. They take between one and three sips, according to local tradition. The act is not a formal religious communion. It stands for sharing the cup of life.

Ahead of Greece honeymoon packages, can a Greek groom see his bride before the ceremony?

By Greek custom, the groom does not see the bride before the ceremony. He arrives at the church first and waits for her. The bride, by tradition, comes late. In smaller places, friends and relatives walk each of them to church separately. They play traditional instruments of their region on the way.

Which dances fill a Greek wedding party, as background to Greece honeymoon packages?

After the ceremony, the couple hold a great party with food, drinks, music and dance. The couple open the dancing and later share their wedding cake. The groom dances the zeibekiko and the bride the tsifteteli, both traditional dances. In rural areas and villages, guests attach money to the bride’s dress in a special dance.