In the wild and at the same time erotic land, of the angry volcano of western Lesbos, in Mesotopos, the great Halloween feast of the “bells” has begun. Except that they are not the bells of the countless sheep of the livestock village, but the bells that the men of the village “live” and faithful to the tradition of many centuries, they circulate in the alleys with their faces painted black, “armed” with the “koustskouda”, a heavy wood with pink thick on the end that they hit the earth, evoking their unknown “chthonic deities”. And all this with treats everywhere and, of course, raki, running through the veins of the wild Lesbian West.

“The wildest disguise was the bell-laden araps, painted with furnace smoke mixed with oil, which made them shine and look wilder still. Only their teeth stood out white, and their eyes. Harnessed with bells, sheep’s turbans, on waist, breast, arms, neck, knees, and with a little club, one end of which was the handle, and the other a thick rosette of crossed branches. They slammed the slug into the ground, swaying and jumping, creating a deafening noise. Their appearance is necessary, as if there was no Halloween without clowns. They entered the houses always in a hurry: ‘Kokkona, kokkona to come in? …Let him feast and leave” writes Panos Kontellis in his book “…the world is small…”, about this great Halloween festival.

With a slow and steady sound of bells, coordinated as if by an invisible conductor, these fierce descendants of the Cyclops move around the village alleys hitting the earth with their “kutchkouda”, crushing evil, causing. And demanding “Bar(a) kutskouda m’ var(a). As if the bride of the spik(i) didn’t tease us.”

Many argue that the bells of Mesotopos in western Lesbos are a cultural continuation of the bells of Skyros and western Macedonia. “The Mesotopites, writes Panos Kontellis, were coming and going in Smyrna, they had seen Turkish Konialides (from Iconium) dancing wildly, dervishes. Those who had not seen it had heard it. So on Halloween, a group was divided into two groups. One with Greek-dressed people and the other with Arab bell-ringers impersonating the Konial Turks. The Greek-clad people, clapping their hands, urged the Konialid bell-ringers and stimulated them to dance in Konialid style while singing in broken Turkish.”

With a subconscious knowledge of their origin, children of the first settler of Lesvos Makaras and the first naturalist Theophrastus of Heresios, they married the dervish dances with the unknown rites of initiation into the mysteries of the cult of Orpheus, and all this in their neighborhood that the wave brought the musician’s head. The Mesotopites, cattle breeders in the majority but also among the best builders of wild stone in the world, continue the ancient tradition by transmitting the custom of bells from generation to generation. Next week the festival reaches its peak.

The Cultural Association of Mesotopou invites everyone to the village throughout the last week of Carnival and especially on Sunday, February 26. And its people promise “feasts, spontaneity, sizzling and of course the unique and imposing chimes with the sounds of their countless bells.” Along with delicious appetizers, plenty of ouzo and traditional pumpkin pie with the care of the Mesotopou Women’s Agritourism Cooperative.