With the days passing quickly, but also very beautiful and creative, this year’s summer activities organized for the ninth consecutive year by the Self-Help Promotion Program – “Rapsani Guesthouse” of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in collaboration with the Rapsani Municipal Library, came to an end.
Based on the previous years and guided by the love of the people, but also by the participation and the positive response to the actions we organize, we were inspired and created this summer actions for the residents of Rapsani, but also for the visitors of the village, which made our summer days more beautiful and interesting with lots of games, laughter, music, imagination, learning and creativity, knowledge, stimuli for reflection and thinking, but also emotion.
In this year’s summer program we held a series of activities for our young and old friends.
We cooked the soup of Rapsani with a lot of imagination, we wandered around the alleys of the village and wrote our own stories, we did interviews and printed the newspaper of Rapsani. We met and loved the wild animals of nature and discovered the hidden secrets of the Sun. We played with our favorite toys of the world and participated once again in a frantic treasure hunt, self-organized by a group of children from Rapsani. We created Picasso’s cubist guitars, went back in time and built the Papa’s Mill. We enjoyed Karagiozis – captain at sea and made our own shadow theatre figures, listened to fairy tales and beautiful stories from many parts of Greece and created our own games with clay and a lot of imagination, inspired by antiquity. Young and old, we took part in a special basketball tournament, playing for the joy of participation and sport, without competition and prizes.
We watched award-winning short films from the International Festival of Drama, listened to excellent folk and rebetiko music, danced in the village square with folk songs performed by young musicians and took part in a unique patinade that brought the whole village to its feet, with sounds from all over Greece and the Balkans.
We took a historical walk in important parts of Rapsani and discussed how the village was shaped architecturally over the years, we toured the oldest building of the village, Agios Ioannis and finally, we travelled from ancient times to modern times, with the compass of Language and Seafaring, learning how these elements shaped the history of Hellenism.
A special place in our activities was the tribute to the actor George Michalakopoulos, an event in which selected guests from the artistic world, but also the family of George Michalakopoulos participated. The talent, attitude and ethos of the great actor, which were highlighted through the words of people who knew George Michalakopoulos artistically and personally, as well as the excerpts from his artistic work, which were screened during the tribute, deeply moved us and are a source of inspiration for us.
*Ouractions are carried out with a minimal budget and are based on passion, human relations, creative collaborations and collective spirit. We would like to thank the local community and all those who helped and supported our actions with their presence, their participation and their financial contribution.
Most of all, we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts the distinguished guests who responded to our invitation with great willingness, despite their personal schedules and professional obligations and with their selfless and warm participation contributed to the creation of a special program of events – actions!
You can be informed about the actions of the Self-Help Promotion Program – “Rapsani Guesthouse” of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Rapsani Municipal Library, which take place throughout the year, at the following links:
www.xenonasrapsanis.gr
https://www.facebook.com/xenonasrapsanis
https://www.facebook.com/rapsanilibrary
