Sefrou se encuentra en el corazón del Medio Atlas. Traditionally, a market town located amidst fertile farming lands, it _cc781905-5cde-3194- bb3b-136bad5cf58d_is known for its fruit orchards, _cc781905 -5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_cherry festival and the large Jewish community _cc781905-5cde- 3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_that lived there up until the _cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b- 136bad5cf58d_last _cc781905-5cde-31 94-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_siglo. Sefrou sigue siendo el hogar de una gran comunidad de artesanos locales, herreros, carpinteros, tejedores y botoneros. Aunque la comunidad sigue prosperando, pocos son los de la generación joven que desean aprender estas habilidades.
Visitando a los artesanos locales en sus talleres, conoceremos su trabajo y su día a día como una forma de conocer el lugar a través de las personas y sus espacios de trabajo. Una orientación de la ciudad desde adentro hacia afuera organizada por Culture Vultures, nos llevará a una relación más profunda con las mujeres amazigh que hilan y tejen y participaremos en un taller textil hecho a mano._cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
Se nos presentará 'El telar en los rituales locales' y cómo las mujeres usaban el telar como medio sagrado de protección. El domingo haremos una excursión de un día a un pueblo comercial de montaña en el Medio Atlas de donde proviene la lana, para conocer a mujeres que practican tradiciones textiles ininterrumpidas en la región.
Junto con estas visitas, nuestro trabajo consistirá en escuchar las historias que emergen de nuestras actividades, así como relacionarnos con historias tradicionales de todo el mundo para enfocarnos más claramente en el papel de la artesanía en la vida del Alma. En nuestro último día compartiremos estas historias en una velada de narración de cuentos (no se necesita experiencia previa). Las prácticas chamánicas diarias nos ayudarán a acceder al conocimiento ancestral y buscar la curación de la ruptura moderna entre la habilidad y la comunidad, el oficio y el Tiempo.
1st Mythopoetic Festival
Chrisso Delphi
23-25 May 2025
Welcome to the first mythopoetic festival in Chrisso Delphi.
I was inspired to create this Festival from the idea that tourism, rather than being just another product of our consumerist, profit-oriented system, could become a way to connect—an opportunity to acknowledge and honor the Indigenous cultures we encounter, and in doing so, begin to shift the way we see and engage with tourism itself.
Even the word tourism, derived from tour, feels inadequate. What if instead, it became a means of deeply understanding the lands we walk on, the nature we witness, and the people we meet—those who have lived there for generations, their concerns, and the transformations they’ve undergone, such as shifting from agriculture to tourism in pursuit of fast profit?
Having worked on these lands for several years now, guiding groups through them, I’ve noticed a troubling pattern: the youth of Chrisso—the village where the Festival takes place—are leaving for nearby towns like Delphi and Arahova, where tourism has created jobs (hotels, restaurants, etc.). In our current society, such work is more valued—and better paid—than cultivating and working the land. The once-vibrant school in Chrisso has long closed, and in the kafenio (coffee shop), only the elderly and seasonal migrant workers remain. (There is, of course, nothing wrong with that—it’s part of life.)
With this Festival, my intention was to create a thread connecting the myths of the distant past (the Earth’s temple) to the present (modern religious traditions rooted in those same myths), and to the in-between—namely, the inherited stories of classical Greece (Apollo’s temple).
This project was developped thanks to the generosity of our contributors, who donated their time, and the local guesthouse, which offers us hospitality. Whatever the outcome of the Festival, it stands as proof that collective effort and shared vision can bring to life a project that views the world as a place of meeting, learning, and mutual enrichment.
I hope to see some of you there,
Elena Kazantzidi
Storyteller, performer, and organizer of the 1st Mythopoetic Festival of Chrisso-Delphi
Program
We are deeply grateful to the guest house “Xenonas Chrisso” and especially to Zafeira Braousou-Mouka for hosting us and helping us throughout the whole process. We also thank the Cultural Association, the Ethnological Museum. the restaurant Basanos and the Community of Chrisso.
Friday 23/5
20:00
Opening event
Welcoming, presentation of the artists/facilitators
Ceremony
Square of Saint Vassilios
Saturday 24/5
10:30
Story Walk to San George / Atalanta myth by Elena Kazantzidi
( walking distance ½ hour one way)
Elena Kazantzidi is a storyteller. During the last four years, she has walked the ancient path from Chrisso to the sea many times with different groups of people, reciting parts of Odyssey and creating a coexistence between the stories of nature and thοse of the myths.
Meeting point: Central square springs
18:00
Kyriakos Hatzimichailidis reads parts of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, reads a song dedicated to San George and a poem of K. Kavafi.
Ethnological Museum of Chrisso
19:00
5 Video art poems by Kyriakos Hatzimichailidis project “Breaths”Discussion after the event about life and death.
Kyriakos Hatzimichailidis is a film director and producer, born in Thessaloniki in 1963.He has produced over sixty film productions. As a director he had a remarkable career and his project “Breaths”, had succeeded to give an image to contamporary Greek poetry.
More on: www.t-short.gr
Cultural association of Chrisso
Prophet Women - Storytelling with music
Step into the sacred lineage of the Pythia, the prophet women of Delphi, as Karmit EvenZur reimagines the ancient practice of oracular divination through a contemporary, shamanic lens. Giving council on matters of the state and matters of the heart, these prophet women practiced a ‘Politics of the Otherwise’.
This storytelling performance tells the story of the animacy of the land. It gives us a glimpse into the teachings of Gaia, Nyx and the Python - sacred allies of the unseen.
Karmit EvenZur (UK, Spain) is an artist whose practice revolves around the dynamic interactions between humans and the non-human world. With deep attentiveness to subtle narratives of people and land, she invites us to renew our connection to the places we dwell in.
This event will be accompanied by the musician Elli Giannaki
Drawing musical inspiration from around the world and using her oud, flute and voice, Elli Giannaki explores mystical routes of stories, opening a crack in the window of thought for imagination to sneak in.
Museum/Cultural Association Garden
20:00
Dramatherapy. Based on the myth of Python and using experiential and expressive tools, we will explore how the archetypes of Apollo and Python relate with the roles that we play in our lives, as well as how we are called to cultivate a wider emotional, ecological and social intelligence in order to be active citizens of a complex world in crisis.
Alexis Ioannou is a dramatherapist and body/relational psychotherapist, with a focus on cultural and intergenerational aspects of trauma. He has an MA in dramatherapy from the University of Roehampton, UK, he is trained in Ancestral Healing from the Ancestral Medicine organisation in the US, and is a registered traumatherapist with the NARM approach. He practice sits at the crossroads of animist/relational values, somatic trauma therapy, creative arts psychotherapy and mindfulness/contemplative practice. For more information see his website www.rodihealing.com
Cultural Association of Chrisso
Sunday 25/5
10:30
Lecture on the Python myth of the oracle temple in Delphi. The Python myth and the Dilion myth (Python and Apollo). The virtue of wisdom and the virtue of boldness. On the chthonic (earthy) and the celestial mixture of the human constitution.
Giannis Ditsas is an architect, a writer and a researcher. He studied deeply the profile of Archaic Greece and researched the relation between mythical logos of the oracle Temple and utilitarian logos of the marketplace.
Cultural Association of Chrisso
12:30
Closing ceremony at the central square