Yia Mas

05/03/2026

EPIRUS APOKRIES TRIP ❤️ Apokries carries one of life’s most beautiful paradoxes. In the revelry, masked anonymity, and departure from social norms, we return to things deeply human: shared identity, physical expression, and the purity of spirit. Exhausting for the body no doubt🙃, but absolutely renewing for the spirit. It’s impossible to capture an experience like this with words or tiny instagram squares, but we’ll do our best.

Our Epirus experience held all this and more, and as always the most powerful part was the people! Thank you, firstly, to those who made the LONG journey to experience winter Greek magic with us. We (Stacie and Kristina of Yia Mas) crafted this retreat with intention, hoping to immerse into an often forgotten side of Greece, and you helped make it unforgettable. We loved wandering under snow-capped mountains, dancing together in village squares, gathering around tables and (big!) fires, tasting local wines and tsipouro, and learning about the history and culture of Epirus.

Thank you, Rafael Papakostas, for helping us plan, for the incredible musical surprises, for quite literally transporting us. To Dr. Christos Papakostas and the brilliant team from the University of Ioannina, deep gratitude for sharing your fieldwork so generously and allowing us to experience something lesser known and oh so special.  

And to Epirus, you have our love, awe, and gratitude✨

25/02/2026

23/02/2026

OUT OF THE APOKRIES PORTAL AND INTO CLEAN MONDAY - Καθαρά Δευτέρα 🪁 After embracing ritualized chaos, silliness, subversion of social norms, and lot’s of meat and tsipouro, clean Monday feels like a palate cleanser - and it literally is. For Orthodox Christians, great Lent begins. 40 days to slow your roll, abstain from meat, and prepare for the big spring awakening (Jesus, if you’re religious. For all of us, it’s flowers, fecundity, and life abuzz. But more on that rebirth stuff later.)

🪁We purposely have our Apokries trip last through today. It closes the ritual, in a way. One need not be religious to feel the energetic shift of Clean Monday. In Greece, it’s an event: families dine out on seafood and other meat free dishes, children fly kites, shops are closed, and the mood is actually quite happy despite the collective Apokries hangover.

We’ll share a recap of our Apokries adventure later. Thanks for following along! Art by the late Great alekosfassianos 🪁 depicting the tradition of flying a kite on Kathara Deutera. Fittingly hopeful, childlike, and wholesome. ALSO pictured: lagana bread and dancing on Skyros, where Kathara Deutera is a celebration lasting into the night.

17/02/2026

Greek horses 🤝 year of the Fire Horse. Some very cute horses in Fokida AND from our last Apokries group trip on Skyros.🏺 Despite their diminutive stature, those Skyrian horses are not ponies. They’re an ancient and special breed of horse and they’re also the cutest.

Yes, the fire Horse comes from eastern traditions/Chinese astrology and has absolutely nothing to do with Greek culture, but we love this as an archetype. Who doesn’t feel ready for some fresh, wild horse energy by late February?!

14/02/2026

From Nikos Kazantzakis to Sappho, a glimpse into the essence of love through Greek poets, philosophers, and language. Share with a lover, a friend, and/or your crush❣️

Background image: Eros and Psyche, currently found at The Louvre.

14/02/2026

From Nikos Kazantzakis to Sappho, a glimpse into the essence of love through Greek poets, philosophers, and language. Share with a lover, a friend, and/or your crush❣️

Background image: Eros and Psyche, currently found at The Louvre.

09/02/2026

For the love of song lyrics and poetry on Greek chairs 🤌🏽

03/02/2026

Our hearts thaw at the mere thought 🤌🏽🧿🏺 Looking forward to Epirus, Amorgos, and (???🤭).

01/02/2026

In January I gained an ancestor. This, in lieu of our normal Kalo Mina post, I wanted to share these photos of my Yiayia. The passing of your last grandparent feels symbolic, like the OFFICIAL end of your childhood, even if it’s technically been over awhile. Along with her passing I’ve been reflecting a lot on that generation: The last to live the old ways that have become so popular to talk about on social media. The last who remember Greece’s villages before the post WW2 and Civil War population drain. The ones for whom trending traditions were a way of life. She battled dementia the last 10 years, and the last couple years were very rough. I’m so happy she met my child, even if she was rather confused as to who I was, by then. I like to think that the joy is unattached to knowing specifics.

Born in a Greek village to a comfortable family who, like so many, lost it all during the war, she was sent to learn a trade to help support family, like so many young women of her generation. She became a talented seamstress. She was then sent to America with an arranged marriage (no one really talks about how common this was), she didn’t know any english, and it was not easy on her. She found a lot of solace and belonging in the Greek community here in Virginia. I won’t paint a rose colored portrait or write, ‘she was always the sweetest woman who never said anything mean.’ Yes, she was sweet and caring, but she also told you how she felt whether you wanted to hear it or not.

She was fully a product of her generation and circumstances. She was well dressed and kept an impeccable home. She showed love through avgolemono, Tupperwares of food, and extreme concern for your wellbeing (she once said that if anything happened to me on an upcoming euro trip, she would go the top of the Acropolis, jump, and die). CONTINUED IN COMMENTS