Happy Name Day, Socrates!

Cyprus has many saints days: today is Saint Socrates day so every Socrates on the island will be receiving phone calls from family and friends, wishing them good health and happy name day!

Name days are more important here than birthdays. On your name day, you are treated like a god – but you have to buy the cakes for everyone around you! If a baby is born on a name day, that baby is duty bound to be called after the saint whose day it is, regardless of what the parents would wish to call the baby!

Many a ceasarian section takes place conveniently NOT on a name day , to avoid the inevitable enforced name…..

Tony is okay: he has Saint Anthony to look to and celebrate with. My lovely, crazy greek friend, Alexandra, is at a loss as to what to do with me: apparently my name is strange and doesn’t have a saint to bequeath it to me! Alex tells me I should be renamed Helen, or Eleni – or maybe Socrates, I ventured this morning when we were having coffee! Alex was not amused: the names of saints are not things to trifle with or take lightly! Naming is a very serious business here!

The villas in Coral Bay have some lovely names: Lily-May, Chadis and To Oniro (the dream), to name but a few. Choosing a name for a villa is almost as difficult as choosing a name for a baby!

We’ve a few new holiday villas coming online too –

Suggestions on a postcard please