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Moving House to Cyprus – Top Cypriot Customs
Cyprus is one of the most popular countries to move to in the European Union, with more than 70,000 Britons having chosen to make this island nation their home. To help give you a picture of what life in the country is like, Hamiltons Removals – who can help you if you’re interested in moving house to Cyprus – have identified five customs which are common in the country, particularly among the Greek Cypriot community.
Weddings
These are large-scale and often lavish affairs, with preparations going on months beforehand; the celebrations can last for several days and thousands of guests are often invited. The groom is usually shaved by his best man, as a symbol of trust between the two of them; and the bride-to-be’s mother ties a red scarf around her daughter, as this is meant to symbolise good luck.
The couple hold a pair of white candles at the start of the service to show their faith in God; and, after exchanging rings, the couple’s heads are covered in wreaths, and they are walked around the altar by the priest.
Birthdays
Among the older generation, birthdays are not as widely celebrated as they are in most western European cultures – it’s just an occasion for close family and friends. Instead, more store is set on Name Days, where children are typically named after the patron saint of their particular region.
The tradition is for a party to be thrown on the Name Day in honour of the person who shares a name with the saint (some saints have more than one ‘day’ per year). A barbecue and buffet at the house are usually prepared, and there is lots of singing, dancing, and drinking.
Increasingly, among the younger generation, conventional birthdays are now given at least as much importance as Name Days (and are celebrated accordingly).
Religious Festivals…
Christmas – this has a fair amount in common with other European countries’ celebrations, but there are some different carols, and some traditional food (shortbread and cookies are usually baked for the festive period). Some people observe a period of fasting in advance of the holiday period; usually this starts on the Feast of St Nicholas on December 6.
Epiphany – this is also held in January as in other western European countries; however, it’s also known as the Festival of Light and the local priest sprinkles holy water in people’s homes to drive out evil spirits and goblins (Kallikantzaroi) which are believed to have arrived over Christmas.
Easter – Cypriots who are members of the Greek Orthodox Church celebrate this for a full week. with masses, parades and beautifully painted Easter eggs; effigies of Judas are thrown into bonfires.
…And Festivals City by City
If you are considering removals to Limassol, then the pre-Lent carnival (pictured above) there is the most spectacular in the country, with parades, masquerades and feasts over a full two weeks. Limassol is also the place to visit if you like your wine; there’s a festival there in the first week in September which attracts vine-growers from all over the country (and is accompanied by street theatre, dances and concerts).
The Kataklysomos (Festival of the Flood, which coincides with Pentecost and honours Aphrodite and Adonis) is also celebrated all over the country, but Larnaca is the place to go to see this; there’s with a grand procession that winds down to the seashore and ends with a communal water-splashing. The city of Paphos hosts its own Ancient Greek drama festival; it runs from June to August in the amphitheatre.
Moving House to Cyprus with Hamiltons Removals
Hamiltons Removals can help with removals to Limassol, Larnaca, the country’s capital Nicosia, Famagusta, Kyrenia, Paphos and all major towns and cities in Cyprus. We aren’t restricted to domestic moves either – we sort out commercial moves too, and we can combine the two in one competitively-priced package if you want to move employees as well as your office. For more information about our removal services to Cyprus, follow this link or call us on 01379 855203
Top Tips for Decluttering Your Home Office
Working from home has now become a way of life for many people, who now only have to be in the office for part of the week. According to official Government figures, almost four out of every 10 people are still spending at least one day a week working from home.
However, this can put a lot of strain on space in the home, with spare rooms being transformed into home offices and workspaces. Here Hamiltons Removals, who stock packing materials for customers in Norfolk, Suffolk and across East Anglia, provide some top tips to ensure your home office looks neat and tidy and is a really productive environment to work in.
Start from Scratch
It may be best to start by removing everything from the room. That way all the surfaces, floors, and walls can be cleaned before you start. You may also discover a few items hidden away in nooks and crannies you had forgotten about. These may be restored to their rightful place or just binned.
Then you can begin to think about the design. Is the chair in the right place to be comfortable, have you got enough natural light, etc. Is there enough room on the desk for the PC/laptop, and what about storage?
Be Brutal
Some items you may not need at all, or at least not in your new work environment. It may help if you have a complete declutter and divide things into three categories – keep, archive and junk. Items in the last category can be recycled, thrown into the dustbin, given to friends, family, or the local charity shop or sold on an online auction site.
You may be surprised, if you can be dispassionate enough, at how much ‘stuff’ you can get rid of – and how much space and money you could make.
Let Tech Be Your Friend
Investing in a smaller laptop, or even a tablet, will pay dividends in terms of the physical space you have to work in. Making use of cloud storage will mean that you need fewer hard copies of documents, although you may still need to be able to print them from time to time.
You will also still need some physical storage space. If a more bulky cabinet is too big, consider some shelving on the walls, which you can access just as easily. Labelling cables so you know what each one does and what it’s attached to can also come in handy; you may find you have one or two leads which you don’t need any more.
A Place for Everything…
It can be so easy to ‘lose’ important documents when they get buried under something else, which might not be quite so important. So make sure that, at the end of every day or week, you give yourself a few minutes to file everything away.
Have a colour-coded system if it helps to identify things such as particular clients or priority tasks. Knowing exactly where everything is could save you valuable working time.
And, if there Still Isn’t Enough Space…
If you need something to put your decluttered items in, we also stock a wide range of packing materials at our Harleston site on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, including specialist decluttering kits. They include strong boxes, packing paper and bubble wrap, marker pens and inventory sheets. In fact, everything you will need for a successful home office declutter.
If there still isn’t enough room in your home office, then consider using self-storage – we operate two Safe N Stored sites, at Harleston and Aldeby. The Harleston site is ideal for smaller items, such as sensitive documents which you don’t want to keep in your home office.
At Aldeby the units can accommodate larger items, such as furniture, which you may have to move out to make way for your home office. Both the sites are extremely secure, being covered by CCTV cameras, and Harleston has an alarm system linked to Norfolk Police. We are continuing to follow all the latest coronavirus advice; both sites are open as usual and we are safely despatching online orders for packing materials.
For more information on our selection of packing materials and decluttering kits, visit our e-shop here.