Karavitiko 2005, at the Castellorizian Club, Kensington, Sydney.
Sia Poulos (Tamworth; Kythera) delivering the key-note speech to the assembled audience at Karavitiko 2005.
Karavitiko Symposium 2005
This years Karavitiko Symposium was held on Sunday 13th February at The Castellorizian Club, Kingsford. It was preceded by a Holy Service at Saint Spiridon's Church, Gardeners Rd, Kingsford, where the icon of Ayios Haralambos was paraded around the Church. Ayios Haralmbos is the patron saint of the village of Karavas. His life history is recounted in some depth on the kythera-island website at Culture, subsection, Religion.
Begun in 1967 the Karavitiko has been celebrated with a formal luncheon or dinner, every year since. The "Symposium" aspect derives from the fact that originally Karavites and Kytherians attending were encouraged to stand up and relate their life stories, experiences on Kythera, and subsequent migration to Australia.
This year, Sia Poulos, publisher of the ever popular Summer Edition was the key-note speaker. Sia was bought up in Tamworth, were her parents still reside. Alex (Yeoryo)Poulos, her father, attended the function. Sia's mother Maria was a Tambakis. Sia lives on Kythera. She is married to Dimitris Kiriakopoulos, and they have a son Alexandros.
Attendees at the Karavitiko received Sia very warmly. The majority knew all about the Summer Edition, and it was obvious that the newspaper is held in very high regard by Kytherian Australians. In her speech, Sia mentioned some opportunities that had been lost for funding large capital expenditure programmes on Kythera - because of the traditional rivalries between mesa and exo thimo. She also mentioned the need for establishing a quarterly magazine of high quality to canvass some of the key Kytherian issues, on Kythera, and amongst the Diaspora.
The atmosphere was very warm in the function room. Everybody particularly enjoyed "catching up" with relatives and friends - the central purpose of maintaining the Karavatiko tradition.
It is proposed that next years guest of honour will be Mother Kallistheni ( formerly Karin Sterling, (nee, Zantes)), from Goulburn, the Mother Superior of the Greek Orthodox Monastery, in Victoria. She is the great-grandaughter of the reverred "Papa Vangelli" Krithary, long-time priest of Ayios Haralambos Church, Karavas, and teacher at the school of Karavas. (Numerous photo's of Papa Vangelli can be found on kythera-family.net). Karin's appointment completes a "religious" family circle for the Krithary and Zantes families.
In an endeavour to elicit more photographs and stories about Karavas, and Kythera, the Committee of the Karavitiko Symposium have decided to donate 3 prizes for best entries to the web-site of:
1. Landscapes/buildings in and around Karavas.
2. Person/Group Portrait - Karavas.
Prizes of $250 each to be announced on Oxi Day, 2005.
3. Best Sporting Life entry - any subject.
Prize of a signed Eastern Suburbs Rugby League football guernsey
