The story of a Cyprus sweet

On the third Sunday in September visitors and residents alike have the opportunity to enjoy a Cyprus traditional festival, the 2016 Lofou Palouze festival at Lofou village in the Limassol district.

This is a chance to taste freshly made palouze and find out how it’s made.

In older times, traditional sweets were made from boiled grape juice which, apart from honey, was the only available sweetener. Such sweet grape products were especially made in villages like Lofou where grapes were produced in abundance.

Apart from wine making, grapes were consumed fresh, dried in the form of raisins and their juice was used for making a range of different sweet products which formed part of the people’s daily diet. Most common of these traditional sweets that are still produced extensively are palouze or Cyprus grape jelly and soujoukos (grape must rolls).

They are still made at rural homes, especially by women in the wine villages located on the southern slopes of the Troodos massif. Up until now palouze has been produced using methods that are no different from those of our ancestors.

Besides the palouze there is also a musical programme.

Visitors can listen to Michalis Terlikkas who has a repertoire covering all kinds of Cypriot traditional music and the Antama music group from Limassol. The folklore dance group Nostos Pissouriou will perform folkloric dances and the municipal choir of Ypsonas will also take part in the celebrations.

The traditional grape stomping performed with bare feet to release the juices for wine making is another part of the fun, as is a children’s corner, a tombola and an orienteering game for the kids.

The event is hosted at the Lofou primary school from where the orienteering will start at 2pm. Free buses and a Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) guide are available. The buses will leave from the CTO office in Germasoyia at 2pm and a guided tour of the village starts from the Panayia Chrysolofitissa church in Lofou at 2.45pm.

Palouze festival
Annual festival to do with the sweet. September 18. Lofou, Limassol. 3.30pm. €4. Tel: 99-693122. For seat reservations on the buses 25-323211

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