History of the Association

It was the mid 60`s when a group of friends and members of "Orminio" an association in Portaria, recording local and social changes for example: domestic emigrants of Portaria who came back to the village, wealthy Athenians who had Portaria a second place of living especially in summer periods, regular vacationers and visitors who preferred Portaria as a summer place to have their holidays, as well as the further touristic development,as a result of several infrastructures in the village, they thought of making a fact-event under a special character of a relation between the villagers, the visitors and the vacationers of that time, which was about to revive every year with a local celebration. So a top social event of the small agricultural society of the village, the wedding, and a revival of the customs of the classic Pelion wedding was invented with its first revival in 1965. The aim of this new "custom" was an annual and continual gathering between the villagers and the visitors with a wish… "a meeting like this, to be a yearly gathering here in Portaria, all together again"…

The attempt of the revival of the Pelion wedding as a cultural event always sets two aims, first to show to younger people the conventional wedding ceremony from the old society of Portaria and second to indicate to the big amount of visitors of portaria a part of its folklore tradition, with its authenticity, originality as well as its liveliness of the celebration, offering a unique experience with customs which have been forgotten as time passed, through the differentiation of the modern way of life and the inclusion of the west thinking of life. The above attempt has been paused during the dictatorship. It has continued since 1975 up till now, because of its spiritual authenticity and the conscientious attempts of its all participants in the custom, with annual recognition every summer,a weekend after Assumption day at its peak.

The association "Orminio" in Portaria, has taken part in the exhibition "Filoxenia" in Thessaloniki by reviving the customs of the traditional Pelion wedding in 1988 and in 1993. In 1992 in Athens it was represented as a revived event in Cinema-Theatre "Pallas" on 8 February. In 1992, the primary school of Portaria starts a series of revivals of the custom in several places, like at the primary school, at the village`s campsite, even more in other villages, giving the motive to other groups to participate to the revival of the custom in a different approach. We also notice an adaptation of the shows according to the place and site of their conducting.In 2004 the 6th grade of the experimental all-day primary school of Portaria, in a fraternization frame with the relevant school of "Xilotibou" village in Cyprus has represented an alternative version of a traditional wedding, which was Pelion and Cypriot at the same time with its own students playing the leading roles. A remarkable mention is also the fact that in 1983 and 2013 the revivals of the customs of the Pelion wedding, have included real weddings of couples who wanted to participate in all the events of this unique celebration.