“Chios, one word, a thousand images, and just as many customs and scents.
Weddings in Chios are stately and dreamlike as if they are straight out of a fairy tale.
Countless churches and monasteries, medieval villages, famous orchards in the plains, magnificent beaches for unforgettable post-wedding parties overlooking the Aegean with the most enchanting sunsets.
Chios is fast becoming a great place for destination weddings, but remains a key option for the Chian diaspora.
The traditional wedding on the island. The return to the island where childhood summers were spent, where their parents grew up, where their grandparents eagerly await them every summer. Many of them follow the Chian customs of preparation in their family home and capture the beauty of their island as well as the Chian culture through their wedding.
The weddings are adorned with local products from Chios, and the celebration often includes local bands making it truly unforgettable.
Chios has numerous wedding customs, depending on the village or area of origin. One of the most well-known being the kolikia.
Kolikia is a traditional wedding custom in the village of Pityos in Chios. The custom begins on Thursday before the wedding, where villagers would gather at the bride’s house and knead bread with flour, sugar, and spices. This was significant because just as the ingredients are bound together, so should the couple be. The custom was accompanied by laudatory songs for the couple, the in-laws, and even the kneaders.
After the kolikia were kneaded, the single girls would decorate them with various designs and shapes, and then they would carry them to the family oven with trays to bake. Usually, 2 sweet kolikia were made, one for the church and the other as an honorary gift for the bridesmaid. The rest of the kolikia were kneaded as bread. On Saturday before the wedding, relatives gathered at the bride’s house to make the favors, while the free young men cut the rest of the kolikia into pieces. Then they put them in baskets and distributed them to the villagers as a wedding invitation. Back then, the invitation to the wedding was the favor along with a piece of kolikia, as there were no invitation cards. The kolikia going to the church was cut by 2 free young men over the heads of the groom and bride as they exited the church, and then the pieces were distributed to the people. The custom of Kolikia requires the couple to be headstrong and united. The roots of the custom go back centuries. Many from Pityos still observe the custom even today to remind us how much more beautiful life was back then, how much richer and meaningful the mystery of Marriage was in the old days.
If you too want the most beautiful day of your life to have a scent of mastic, reach out to us and we can help point you in the right direction.
¨Kai sto bedio!”
