Punch and Judy alla grec!

Last night I went to a Karagiozis show with my son. I watched him as he jumped up and own, happy, taking part, laughing... Shouting to Karagiozis to watch out, to beware the snake, laughing always, enjoying himself...

(For those who don't know Karagiozis, is a "Greek" traditional shadow puppet theater. As his name implies but also as you can see from the video above, he has Turkish roots, (Kara is black in turkish)

The place was the front yard of the National Gallery's Corfu department, but it did not take much to imagine we were in the "plateia" of some village, many years ago...

I confess that in the past I was a little prejudiced against Karagiozi shows, during my childhood I saw it as something "old" and how could it compare to my television and video games, and Star wars and Marvel comics... It probably was that I also had seen a pretty crappy show of it once, so small and I was too far away to make out what was happening...so I didn't care much for it....

Yet, and I guess maturity has a liittle to do with it, it CAN stand up against the giants of my youth's fun... because it is clever and nowadays it is also making an effort to catch up in its thematology.

It set me to thinking...

In the troubled times we were going through (this was written in 2013) Karagiozis seemed to me like a very interesting and lovely point of reference, a symbol.

Before the show we were told a few things about it by one of the players...what stuck most in my mind was that Karagiozis is considered a symbol of the fight against the opressor, against authority

Karagiozis is fighting against the Cursed Snake (sounds like an old school Greek Harry Potter...) he is fighting in any way he can, using even the Super Fart, (this went down REALLY well with the kids,,,)

Karagiozis is crafty, but also a little stupid, he hits his chidren (now how politically incorrect is that!? but bear in mind he is from another era...) But he is essentially good, and a go getter, yet he has shortcomings...Which human doesn't?

Karagiozis is Greek, but he is more Turkish. And he might be a little Chinese too as historically shadow puppets come from the Far East via the Middle or Near East... But as in most things in life, it is not the beggining or the end of a journey that matter. as much as the journey itself.. Karagiozis arrives to us having collected knowledge from various civilisations, but also from life itself...

The life which is that exactly that we have in common between us. all that keeps us apart is truly secondary, but some people are extremely reluctant to accept this.

Aren't we all a little Karagiozis's? (and certainly Greeks and Turks are Karagiozis's, we have much in common...including ridiculously corrupt governments)


Karagiozis is a father.

Karagiozis is human..

Karagiozis is you and me.

I am a Karagiozis. .

And I'm proud od it.




Check out the comments under the video in Youtube, I found it accidentally..