#Balkan coffee shop

[tenderflint]

idk how obscure this is but does anyone have the video (vine? tiktok?) that's like "balkan coffee shops at 6am" and it's the two girls dj-ing except they're just moving the espresso cups around?

[endreal]

I literally backscrolled 25 months thru my archive to find this video again because I couldn't remember the caption to search for it

exactly !!!!!

[scavengedluxury]

New Balkan coffee shop at 8am just dropped in Glasgow.

[hermesparis]

if you wanted an explanation of Me As A Person

[maretriarch]

lets get zis party started

[rodeoromeo]

playing the smiths and the cure and 80s emo pop noise rock adjacent music feel like I’m in the weird punk new wave rave store in camden market but it’s this dirty ass coffee shop at 9am and I threw up this morning

[dykentery]

decided the balkan coffee shops would be big dj crazytimes fans

[foursaints]

Hi, Hi! I just wanted to tell you that for me your Barty is so important just bcs he's just… such a shitty euro boy.

He has three braincells and on one them is sexualizing all he sees. He smokes with his mouth open. He goes to raves and gets so drunk he can't remember who he came in for. He manspreads un the metro and always thalks on speaker phone. He got knifed and he tells the story with all his pride. His first time was in the club's bathroom. He started drinking at 14. He gets in fights to pick up people. He has set something on fire for the sake of it with his friends. He lover her mom. His masculinity is so performative and so weird. His first kiss was with a dude "but it was for practice".

He's such a shitty euro boy and I love him for it (← says the butch that might just be one of those boys anyways)

-🐛

YES… eurotrash barty will always be the realest and truest vision to me. fundamentally he’s that EDM tiktok that’s like “balkan coffee shops at 7am”

[kristina100000]

what song is playing in that tiktok that’s like balkan coffee shop at 8am with those two girls

stereo loveeee. u enter a bar and hear this and you know its your new home

[legallybrunettedotcom]

is the balkan coffee shops at 8 am tiktok real?

lmaooo in my experience, no. I'll be honest, I never understood that tiktok. Maybe it is like that in other places, but here I've never seen it.

[ambientwitch]

I’m sorry but the balkan coffee shop women would never listen to dj crazy times. And honestly it’s going to take me a long time to recover from pressing play on that video immediately and being accosted by its cruel edit. ALSO where is the appreciation for the blonde woman in the dj crazy times video. You say women are your favorite guy but when it comes time for praxis you are nowhere to be found

[juliakristeva]

thinking about balkan coffee shops at 8am again

[mockiatoh]

I’m so mad I can’t find the Balkan coffee shop at eight am post. I know I’ve reblogged it thirteen times at least.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hi Theitsa! half Greek in America here, looking for translation help and you're the only blogger I know 😭

long story short: my family on my mom's side all practice Greek folk magic, with my great-grandma and(possibly my great aunt)apparently being "completely" a witch.

i grew up with it but i'm still learning the language and my family disowned me for being gay so I can't ask for help with research.

the most commonly used term for "witch" is "magissa"/ μάγισσα right?? is μαγεία more common for magic in general? when I'm using Google translate γητεία seems to be the most common term for folk sorcery.

and i see the practices of Circe referred to as μαγγάνεια??

thank you for your help if you know anything, I know it's a niche topic.

bless you!!!

Hii! Dear anon I'm very sorry for what your family did to you :/ That's nor fair at all! May you thrive and be always blessed in your life!

This topic is not niche, actually! The average Greek in the country has some basic contact and knowledge of such stuff either by doing some or by hearing of them. I haven't talked a lot about Magganeia/Vaskaneia in Greece so let's do a Masterpost!

(Greeks with deeper knowledge please add to this post and let me know if something is inaccurate! All I have is "average Greek" knowledge but well, someone has to make the start.)

People throughout Greece (as in the whole Balkans and the Middle East tbh) practice a lot of customs to bring good energy and good things to them or expel bad energies and bad things. The most prevalent being the ritual of xematiasma (the prayer for which needs to be passed down by the opposite sex on a full moon), or customs with bridal koufeta for young girls to attract a good groom, reading the coffee and the palm, explaining dreams (and having recorded oneirokrites), giving new year talismans for good luck (mati beads, pomegranate charms, horseshoes) and hanging them around the home, or baking a pie to St. Fanourios if you want to find something you lost etc etc.

Traditionally such practices in Greece are intertwined with local customs and herb knowledge and it's not a big "issue" like it would be for USAmerican (cultural or practicing) Evangelicals. In Greece it's acceptable to do many things that in the US would be considered "witchcraft" but here they're just "tradition".

For Greeks the basic stuff I mentioned in the first paragraph is widely accepted to the point many of them have fused with church practices through the centuries. Coffee shops where one can have their coffee and palm read - although not many - have lots of customers. Tarot readers also have a good clientele. I've heard Greeks dismiss such stuff as "nonsense" but rarely dismiss them as "evil". Actually, the comments about such practices being evil here are very tame and usually connected to the church - but not in the US way.

Our Church might have cried about such practices in the past but... who listens to the church on these things! :P (only a few do) Our insistence on keeping folk practice led to Greece having no witch hunts or any witches burnt for at least a thousand years now!

Map of witchhunts in early modern Europe (source)

There is a line here, too, of course. Like, if one uses a heart from a mouse wrapped in an oak leaf bathed in frog bile to expel the bad spirits (a spell I just made up) that's officially "witchcraft" and we find it weird at best. More mild stuff like burning wishes written on paper or letting garlic absorb bad energies and then burn it are middle ground and not outright condemned - I feel the Greeks have a great tolerance of what is considered "folk tradition" to them.

The fear of being "pagan" in recent centuries is a Western panic. Traditionally Greeks and their Church were most worried about harmful spells (which included harming an animal or human in the process) and calling demons to do your bidding. If you called a saint for help in a non-harming spell... hmm that wouldn't be that worrying I guess. As long as you didn't ask a priest's opinion, you'd be fine :P

The sum of acceptable and unacceptable practices by the Greek public can be called "μαγγανεία" or "βασκανεία". Because they include unacceptable practices as well, the words have a negative connotation.

"Μαγεία" for Greeks is connected more to the Western archetype of a wizard with a tall hat going around with a big rod shouting "abracadabra". It's connected more to fantasy and fairytales. Traditionally I don't think we used μάγος/μάγισσα for people who did such practices. Even today I've yet to hear Greeks who call themselves witches say "κάνω μαγικά".

I'd say μαγγανεία or βασκανεία are the appropriate terms for what your great-grandma practiced. The spells are traditionally called γητείες (sing. γητεία). The word γόης which now means "very charming man" meant "sorcerer" in ancient years. We just use it metaphorically today. These words all have the same linguistic root.

Nowadays I haven't heard men call themselves "μάγος" but some women call themselves "μάγισσα", and they do "ξόρκια" (comes from εξορκισμός, exorcism - the English version of the Greek word). I think "μάγισσες" practice more Western types of magic because they learned the spells from Western European or US books and videos. I don't know if a practicer of Greek folk spells would be called the same.

I must note that all the above is the reason why when USAmericans practice Greek customs to worship the Greek gods and call themselves "pagans" feels a bit unsettling to me. I suppose if you add crystal balls and tarot and crystals to the practice that would shift it more to the "witchy" side (although as a Greek I'm quite flexible :P) But more than once I've seen USians call themselves "pagans" for simple acts of worship which are very much non-pagan. Having a home altar with the gods along with some blessed items and candles burning... is Basic Christian Orthodox stuff too, a tradition unbroken from ancient years (εικονοστάσια με καντήλια, κεριά, λουλούδια, κομποσκοίνια).

At the same time, I understand that in their society this can be called "being pagan" so I'm not saying that my view is the only one that matters in this. But some knowledge of the Greek culture always helps if you're practicing its customs. It will also help the Westerners stop calling Orthodoxes "savage pagans" for our religious practices after a thousand years :))))

Thanks for making it this far! Get a small bonus: a great article on ancient Greek "bindings/wishes" which is in Greek and it will be probably still fine if translated through Google.

Some things might differ between areas and eras so that's why I welcome other Greeks to comment here with their own experiences and stories of "witches" (or whatever they called them) if their areas had any.

[nsewell]

i wish i could party with balkan coffee shop girls forever