Tales from Crete | 35

Have you ever wondered why almost all doors and shutters are blue?

It is undeniably very charming and looks both really cozy and welcoming and fits perfectly with the mostly white painted buildings. But I wonder if there is a deeper meaning to the doors being blue – not just a random blue, but a blue color like the blue color in the Greek flag. I set out to get a little smarter about that, and since I didn't quite know who to ask, I had to resort to Google. Not much came out of that, but by searching for "blue doors Greece" over half a million results came up in less than half a second, and then I could see that it was a bit uphill and search that way .

In any case, it is a fact that the real blue color is actually called "Greek Blue" and it and white are the most used colors in the whole of Greece. If you see a small blue-painted round table and a wooden chair with a wicker seat, it immediately draws attention to Greece. I don't know of any other countries that use just one color to the same extent as the Greeks and that express such a strong identity. Imagine if in Denmark we used the red color from our Dannebro as the color for all doors and outdoor furniture. It would most likely look strange in little Denmark. But throughout Greece it is almost a "must" to paint the houses white and the woodwork and furniture Greek Blue. In certain places, such as Santorini, it has previously been required by law that the houses should be white.

The closest I have been able to get is that the blue color in the Greek flag should remind one of the sky and the sea and the white color symbolizes purity, and seen from these eyes it suddenly makes very good sense. Because if there is something that is really abundant in Greece, it is the blue sky and the azure sea. Greece actually has the largest stretch of coastline in the world relative to the size of the country.

For most Greeks, it is not the blue color of the door that is decisive, but rather what is hidden behind the door. You can be pretty sure that if a Greek comes to a closed door, he does not hesitate to open it to see what is hidden behind the door. This can be perceived as very intrusive, but it is basically just a matter of curiosity, because a closed door signals that there is something hidden or hidden behind it. I once heard that that quality is deeply rooted in the Greek way of life and has been instrumental in the Greeks over the millennia producing as many philosophers, scientists and other scholars as they have.

I know what is hidden behind most of the closed blue doors and it is basically nothing special. "But the story is good," as one Greek told me, "and if it turns out to be a lie, it's certainly not me who's lying, because Greeks never lie," he said, adding: "then it's just a kind of memory distortion and that kind of thing cannot always be fully taken into account"

Have a really nice weekend with a Greek Blue sky and high sun.