Spirited and bursting with national pride, the most emblematic is the “Pentozali”.
Performed historically by men as a war dance, “zalos” directly translates to step in English which is telling of its exciting choreography. Other notable dances are the more technical dances, syrtos, sousta, maleviziotis and siganos.
The Cretan Culture goes hand-in-hand with the traditional dancing and its traditional costumes.
Cretan traditional costume was of the most elegant and most complicated form of clothing and was divided into every day and festive clothing. While in other regions traditional clothing was one of the first things to be replaced by western clothing named “frágkika roúha” – in Crete traditional clothing is worn up until today.
Fast-flowing instrumental melodies coupled with profoundly rustic solos create an attractively raw piece of music which is all too recognizable. Speaking of which, Zorba’s Dance by Mikis Theodorakis is a notable song used in the Oscar nominated 1964 movie Zorba the Greek.
Traditional Cretan food has always been prepared from local ingredients, raw or prepared as simply as possible – grilled or baked. Since ancient times, Cretan cuisine has been based on several basic elements: olive oil, herbs, fish and seafood, goat or lamb meat, vegetables and fruits grown on the island. Today, the traditional Cretan diet is considered one of the healthiest in the world.
