I am on vacation on the Peloponnes currently and when driving around the region we keep seeing little fires like the one on the picture in people’s gardens/backyards.
It seems the fires mostly consist of wood sticks an branches.
So my question is: What are the people burning and why is it such a common practice?
by JimmyBlueOchsenBob
13 comments
Because big ones would be dangerous… Duh
Burning dry grass
Or it’s a barbecue
They are burning wood clippings from their gardens as it is forbidden before November 1st.
It’s the ministries, communicating with each other.
It is probably for “cleaning” random sticks branches that can pile up after gathering /pruning the trees, in order for them to not pile up until spring. It is the end of the gathering season for olives right now. Do they have olive trees over there?
A lot of people in villages use wood stoves /fireplaces to heat their homes so they usually keep a bunch of small sticks to start the fire, but after that the small sticks just disappear in the flames and then you want actual firewood. So people just fill a carton or two for the winter and burn the rest of the pile before everything is wet.
Because smoke signals are cheaper than using cell phones.
THE BEACONS ARE LIT!
In Winter and Spring, which are wet-seasons, many Greeks that own property are burning bushes and other wild foliage that may have sprung up from their land. This is because Greece has ridiculous land property laws, where should your plot of land be forested, now it is no longer your property but of the state. As such, if a Greek does not want to lose their property, they have to clean it every now and then.
It is illegal to burn brush/twigs/branches etc during the dry season because of the risk of forest fires. There isn’t really any municipal “composting” collection. So you cant easily dispose of any dry wood any other way. In most districts, end of October it is legal again to burn brush. So people clear the summer growth, trim the trees and bushes and burn the trimmings in the winter. That way in the summer their property is not full of dead wood that is dangerous.
To keep the dark spirits away
After harvesting olives people may prune the trees and burn the branches. It’s not illegal until it s fire season (1st of may)
after each olive harvest for example, since we are in the season now, it is common to prune the trees so they don’t grow uncontrollably either horizontally or vertically and then they burn these branches so it won’t accumulate or become a fire hazard during the summer