Wednesday, February 29, 2012

  Largest Flour Battle: Greek village sets world record (Video)

 Galaxidi, Greece--In the coastal fishing town of Galaxidi, 124 miles west of Athens, Greeks from around the country and tourists take part in a holiday custom called the 'Flour War'; 540 participants met in the central streets of the village, firing flour bombs at their opponents, trying to douse them with as much powder as possible - and setting the world record for the Largest Flour Battle , according to World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/.

  Photo: Revellers celebrate Clean Monday by participating in a flour war, a traditional festivity marking the end of the carnival season and the start of the 40-day Lent period leading upto the Orthodox Easter, in the port town of Galaxidi, Greece. Photo: Panayiotis Tzamaros/Reuters ( enlarge photo )

The Guinness world record for the Last Battle on American Soil was set in 1890; it was the year of the Battle of Wounded Knee between the US Cavalry and the tribal Sioux Indians, the last battle on American soil.

Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the Largest battle at sea, set by the Battle of Salamis, which took place in the straits at Salamis, between the island of Salamis and the port city of Piraeus, (the city-port of Athens), Greece in September 480 BC. There were an estimated 800 vessels in the defeated Persian fleet and 370 in the victorious fleet of the Athenians and their allies, with a possible involvement of 200,000 men. The Greeks sank about 300 Persian vessels and lost about 40 themselves.

   In the coastal fishing town of Galaxidi, 200 kilometers west of Athens, Greeks from around the country and tourists took part in one of the country's most famous events in honor of Shrove Monday.

  To mark the end of carnival, villagers celebrate Shrove Monday, as it's known in the Orthodox calendar, by donning goggles, face masks, plastic suits, and cow bells. They also arrived with hundreds of small bags filled with multiple colors of sticky baking flour.

  Scores of participants met in the central streets of the village, firing flour bombs at their opponents, trying to douse them with as much flour as possible.Houses and boats nearby were covered with plastic, as the ritual lasted for hours and turned into one sticky mess.

  Some spectators watched from a distance as the battle took place, and the sky filled with flour.

  They said the celebration is an escape for some, and a good example of how Greeks won't lose their sense of humor.

  The town's citizens fund the event themselves, and even the crisis was not going to break a tradition that dates back more than 200 years.

  The custom is believed to have originated in 1801 when Galaxidi residents defied the Ottoman rulers occupying Greece by celebrating the forbidden carnival and painting their faces with ash while dancing through the streets.