The second out of the 4 supermoons of 2020 is expected tonight. Its elliptical orbit will bring the Moon closer to the Earth; tonight at 19:48, the full Moon will appear larger and brighter than it usually does. Compared to an average full Moon, supermoons are 7% larger and 15% brighter.

 

The next supermoon will be on April 8. Native Americans called the March full moon, 'worm moon,' because in March, the soil begins to soften causing earthworms to resurface.

 

The Moon follows an elliptical orbit, and so its distance from the Earth is not fixed. The average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384.400 kilometers. However, this distance increases by approximately 5% at the apogee and decreases by around 5% at the perigee.

 

It is worth noting that the word supermoon is not a scientific term, but a name probably devised by astrologers.


Originally posted on newsbeast.gr.

Translated by XpatAthens.

Athina Luxury Suites hotel is designed for discerning guests looking for a perfect combination of serenity and luxury on the island of dreams, Santorini, Greece.

 

Each one of the perfectly designed suites provides its own unique set of super-luxury amenities, astonishing caldera views and the top service you deserve while on vacations. 

 

Additionally, an unforgettable dining experience awaits you at Esperisma bar-restaurant, where you may enjoy Mediterranean and Greek cuisine inspired by the freshest local ingredients available. Note that Esperisma Bar-Restaurant was this year’s winner of Luxury Lifestyle Awards in the category of Luxury Restaurant in Greece. 

 

Moreover, you may experience the ultimate rejuvenation of body and soul in the brand-new Aphrodite’s spa, while you can spend some time relaxing with your refreshing cocktail in the fully renovated new infinity heated swimming pool with a pool bar, admiring the perfect view to the Caldera of Santorini.

 

Last but not least, Athina Luxury Suites is the perfect setting for your special day too: Imagine your wedding or honeymoon in Santorini with the caldera and volcano as a backdrop... In the courtyards of the island’s churches and on our terrace, Athina Luxury Suites offers couples a real-life fairytale wedding venue each year.

 

With all that being said it wasn't, of course, a coincidence that Athina Luxury Suites with its breathtaking views and world-class services in Fira was awarded as the Best Wedding Hotel in Europe, Best Destination Wedding Hotel in Greece and Best Romantic Hotel in Greece by the Haute Grandeur Global Awards on October 19th, 2019 at The St Regis, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

 

Athina Luxury Suites also triumphed at the World Luxury Hotel Awards winning the title of the Best Luxury Honeymoon Hotel in Europe, at the 13th Annual World Luxury Hotel Awards ceremony held on October 12th, 2019, at the Arctic Tree House Hotel, in Finland.

Looking for an unforgettable stay in Santorini? Search no more as you have already found Athina Luxury Suites! 

 

 

In the wake of Women's Day on March 8, this video is a tribute to pioneering Greek Women Immigrants. This inspiring video describes the life and accomplishments of some of the most open-minded, hard-working, and fierce women immigrants that immigrated to the USA at the beginning of the 20th century.

Even though it is impossible to recount the heroic Greek immigrant women, speaking of just a few invokes the memory of all of them.

It is certain that whatever heights the Greek ethnic community has attained today, is much owed to the love and labors of these extraordinary women!
 

 

 

Athens ArtCore is a recently-formed association of artist-run spaces in Athens, with the goals of creating a network of support, advocacy, and collaboration, as well as raising the visibility of the value of these types of independent spaces. In recent years Athens has seen a proliferation of alternative art spaces, joining the global trend toward artist-run, non-commercial initiatives, which provide an arena for experimentation and innovation in the art scene that traditional galleries cannot. In its first event, Athens ArtCore invites the public to a 3-day festival, to take place 13-15 March 2020, in which each space/platform will independently host a project under the common aegis of Athens ArtCore.

The festival’s title, “Death in Athens”, refers to Thomas Mann’s classic Death in Venice, and its themes of inspiration, creation, and the distinct relationship of the creative process to city and location. The novel also addresses the Platonic theory of forms and how its legacy in Western traditions of art-making furnish disjunctures of idea and form, of signifier and signified. Death in Athens prods these themes for their specific resonance within the Greek capital today. Each participating platform will address these themes with its own curatorial project. 

Friday 13/3 (opening): 18:00-23:00
Saturday 14/3: 14:00-20:00
Sunday 15/3: 14:00-19:00, (closing party): 20:00-24:00

The following initiatives will participate:

 

Halva is a semolina pudding, sweetened with syrup and studded with nuts. Halva is an easy to make, delicious, lenten dessert that is widely served on Kathara Deftera and during the fasting period before Easter. Make sure you brown the semolina enough to get a lovely cinnamon brown colour and a delicious nutty flavor.

 

Serves: 8-10
Difficulty: Intermediate

Cooks in: 40 minutes
 

• 3/4 cups sunflower oil
• 1 cup coarse semolina
• 1 cup fine semolina
• 3 cups granulated brown sugar
• 4 cups water
• Zest of 3 oranges
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 150 g almond slivers

 

 

1. Preheat the oven to 180° C set to fan.
2. Toast the almond slivers in a shallow baking pan lined with parchment paper for 5-8 minutes.
3. In a non-stick pot saute the vegetable oil with the fine semolina and coarse semolina, over medium-low heat.
4. Stir the mixture continuously for about 4-5 minutes, until the semolina becomes golden brown. Do not rush this process since semolina burns easily. Sauteeing the semolina gives it a rich and nutty flavor.
5. When ready, add the sugar, water, orange zest, cinnamon, and cloves.
6. Stir for another 10 minutes until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble. You will know it is ready when it starts to pull away from the bottom of the pan.
7. Add the almonds and continue to stir.
8. Transfer the mixture into a 22 cm bundt cake pan, hit the cake pan on a hard surface to make sure the mixture settles and your halva is nice and compact.
9. Turn it over after 5 minutes.

Find this and other great recipes on: akispetretzikis.com

 

FokiaNou Art Space is pleased to present “Nude”, a solo photography exhibition by Maria Bourbou, opening Saturday 7 March at 7 pm. Bourbou’s work appears as dreamlike images where fiction is mixed with reality and where past, present and future are fused. In this series, she focuses her lens on the naked body using natural light. The interior environment is bare, so that the subject imposes itself. The work acts as a mirror of ourselves, and attempts to display emotions and strength. At the same time it is displayed as a symbol of beauty and harmony.

Born in Athens, Maria Bourbou studied Photography at the private photography school «E.M.E.F» of Dimitrios Xliveros in Athens, as well as German Language and Literature at the University of Kiel (Germany). In recent years, Maria Bourbou has been living and working in different countries in Europe. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally including at the Instituto de Camões in Lisbon, the gallery Teambox, (LX- Factory, Lisbon) and at the Konrad Adenauer Building of the European Parliament in Luxemburg. She recently had a solo show at the Hellenic American Union in Athens, and has participated in many group exhibitions, most recently at the Salon du CAL 2018 in Luxembourg, at “Back to Athens 6” (International Art Festival in Athens), presenting the digital poem «Myopia» . Some of the works in this series were shown in the exhibition “Gender and Other Boundaries” at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Setúbal, Portugal.

FokiaNou Art Space is an artist-run project space in the intimacy of a small apartment in an old building in the center of Athens. The space encourages collaborative creative efforts between Greek and foreign artists, thereby promoting and supporting the local art community. The space hosts exhibitions, workshops and projects under the direction of two artists, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris. 

Opening: Saturday 7 March 19.00
Duration: 7 – 28 March 2020
Hours: Thursday – Saturday 17.00-20.00

Greeks are famous for their hospitality toward guests, visitors, family, and friends. They are renowned for being philoxenoi, as if it is written in their DNA. Anthropologist Sofia Zinovieff, first lived in Nafplio, Greece in the late 80s as a postgraduate student researching modern Greek identity and tourism. Her article gives in-depth insight into the hidden aspects of Greek hospitality.

 

No matter how graceful Greek hospitality is, anthropologists argue there's more to the phenomenon than free-floating kindness. In essence, it's part of a system. In many pre-industrial societies, you automatically give a stranger a meal or a bed for the night, knowing that someone will do the same for you or your loved ones. Some degree of reciprocity is implied, even if it is not implemented. These habits become deeply rooted.

Another very significant factor is the way hospitality contributes to social standing. Many of us may have witnessed Greek "big men" paying for everyone on an evening out or offering large feast in their homes to recognize the processes described above. The Harvard anthropologist Professor Michael Herzfeld believes that, on the island of Crete, hospitality creates a symbolic reversal of power relations. As Herzfeld writes, "At the level of collective representations… [hospitality] signifies the moral and conceptual subordination of guest to host."

After finishing her PhD, Sofia Zinovieff, returned to Greece with her Greek husband and 2 daughters. She writes, "In Athens, I soon saw that aspects of traditional hospitality and generosity have survived, even if circumstances have changed. The reality of millions of tourists visiting each year makes it harder to find the random acts of kindness encountered by earlier travelers. And while many Greeks have been inspiringly hospitable and openhearted towards refugees and migrants (whose mass arrivals coincided with the country's own recent economic crisis), we have also witnessed philoxenia's ugly opposite – xenophobia. Nevertheless, the tendency to maintain social ties and rules of hospitality within the city is still reminiscent of earlier times in more rural communities." "When you treat someone to a coffee or a meal or invite them into your home, you bind them to you in a fluid, open-ended debt that may never be repaid but that may help you in some way in the future. This is the village within the city."

However, the potential for self-interest does not diminish the positive impact of hospitality which creates a "virtuous circle". Hospitality remains hardwired in Greece, if fact you rarely come into someone's home without being offered a glass of water, sweets, and much more. Despite anthropologists' arguments, the potential compensations of hospitality are unlikely to be a concious motive of the giver or the receiver.

Even though Greece society has changed drastically in the recent decades, the self-worth and honor of an individual, their philotimo as it is called in Greece, is still reflected on the way they treat a guest.


To read this article in full, please visit: Greece-is.com

The online tax declaration platform, for the incomes of 2019, is expected to open at the end of this month. Taxpayers and corporations will be able to submit their tax returns until June 30, and the first installment will be payable a month later.

Τhe higher ceiling for achieving the tax-free threshold through online payments will be applicable from the 2020 financial year. Consequently, the declarations submitted this spring will have the previous limits of 10% for all incomes up to 10,000 euros, 15% for incomes from 10,001 to 30,000 euros, and 20% for revenues of over 30,000 euros.

 

As of last year, couples receive separate tax clearance documents, concerning only their personal incomes and not the income of their spouses, regardless of whether they submitted a joint or separate tax declaration.

To read this article in full, please visit: ekathimerini

According to a global survey from WIN/Gallup International, the world’s leading association in market research and analysis in Europe, the Greeks are the cleanest people in Europe, with 85% agreeing that they wash their hands with soap and water automatically.

The results come in the right moment, given the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, where hand-washing is one of the essential measures to deter the spread of the virus. To date, Greece has only reported 7 cases of the coronavirus, while Italy has more than 1,000 cases.

The survey examined a total of 62,398 people worldwide and found there are significant differences by region. More specifically, people from China and Japan were much less likely to automatically use soap and water (23% and 30% respectively). In comparison, Saudi Arabians are among the cleanest nations in the world.

Surprisingly enough, one in three people across the world doesn’t always wash their hands properly after going to the toilet even though it is estimated that hand-washing with soap alone could save over 650,000 lives each year (Greenland et al. 2012).

The President of WIN/Gallup International Association, Jean-Marc Leger, said: “It is estimated that 35% of the global population has no access to safe bathroom facilities and that an alarmingly high number of people across the world are not washing their hands with soap and water, either because of a lack of facilities or bad habits. We are proud to release this study and to contribute to raising awareness worldwide about the benefits of hand-washing with soap.”


To read this article in full, please visit: Greek City Times