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Abstract

Abstract:The purpose of this survey was to study the timeless presence of "Arapides" custom in Nikisiani and to point out any changes which are noticed in its performance because of the versatility presented by social phenomena during any historic and political change take place in our society. Data's collection was done by the ethnographic method, the researchers' participative observation and it was based on primal and secondary sources' use. 1976 was a landmark year for this custom's performance, since Domna Samiou has came to the village and filmed custom's performances. All the performances before 1976 and in 1976, 1996 and 2012/2013 were survey's ethnographic data and their elaboration was carried out by comparative method. Through this method we attempted to show the similarities or the differences as well as this custom's transformation's degree of structure and form during this particular time period. After the analysis of the facts, it turns out that: firstly, the custom has lost its auspicious function and it has acquired an entertaining aspect as a result of the changes in the Greek society. Secondly, the most important date in custom's history was when Domna Samiou has visited in 1976 and it has been presented on her TV show in 1977. Thirdly, there are many changes noticed in both custom's structure and content. Fourth, "arapides'' participation (old men) was introduced in 1976 and since 2009 women's and children's dancing groups have been participating in custom's performances. Finally, performances' days have decreased, and now the custom is taking place only on 7 th of January. Keywords: ritual, dance event, folk dance, social change IntroductionAccording to Kakouris (1976) the word "event" refers to the magic-religious, dramatized show, the dramatized divine service which is performed under the faith (irrational) that in this way the good year of the community will be made sure. According to Puchner (1985) the conceptual whole ceremony/ritual/custom/event is a semiotic system of social acts which obey a certain ritual in their repetition, are binding or even obligatory for the community, stress the emotion of 'us' and present group's identity, throw bridge across crucial life stages, restructure the whole social reality, reflect faithfully the current social values and represent visually a micro-society's or even a macro-society's ideologies. Additionally, according to anthropology, despite all the difficulties she run into in order to define what is sacred and what is worldly (Puchner, 1989), event is every action which obeys a ritual, is repeated in a typical form or it belongs to an entire, set etiquette, either with a religious or with a magical content or without any obvious meaning.Considering all the above, it is proved that folk events are connected with important moments of agricultural life and especially with the ones that have to do with year's crucial periods, like the beginning of the year and nature's florescence in Spring time.Since people in traditional communities were unabl...