"The song of the Macedonian hostages"-Traditional music of Greece Μακεδόνες Όμηροι Σέρρες

This traditional song refers to one of the most tragic periods of the history of Macedonian Hellenism,the WW1 era,when Eastern Macedonia was occuppied by Bulgaria (1916-18) and thousands of Macedonians were sent as hostages in Bulgaria and other Bulgarian occuppied territories (such as Kitchevo in modern FYROM,which is mentioned in the song) for enforced labour and many of them died there.

Song: The choir of the Thessalonian Cultural Association "Agio Pnevma",named after the same village in the prefecture of Serres,Eastern Macedonia.

Lyrics:
A small bird flew from inside Athens/it was roaming around looking for Macedonia/famous Macedonia with all her beauties/they took away from her they deprived her of her beautiful children/they gather youngsters and children and send them to Bulgaria/all night and all day they were crying looking for freedom/Kichevo is a high mountain,God please lower it/so that I see the villages of Serres and then raise it up/On Christmass Eve the bells were ringing/while the Bulgarians were torturing the poor lads.

All images from: Relief work in Eastern Macedonia (1919).
"This book,edited in 1919 by the American Red Cross commission in Eastern Macedonia,shortly after the end of WW1 and the Bulgarian occuppation of the area during WW1 (1915-17) is a source of valuable information about this turbulent period of modern Macedonian history.I always remember my paternal grandparents mentioning the three times our land was occupied by the Bulgarians (1912-13 1st Balkan war,1915-17 WW1,1941-44 WW2) as "proti Voulgaria","devteri Voulgaria" and "triti Voulgaria" respectively.If someone visits some villages in Eastern Macedonia,he will find everywhere in the monument of the central square a simmilar inscription: "1915-17 ΕΝ ΟΜΗΡΙΑ ΥΠΟ ΤΩΝ ΒΟΥΛΓΑΡΩΝ ΦΟΝΕΥΘΕΝΤΕΣ"-"killed by the Bulgarians under hostageship" and a list containing a lot of names below."
link: http://www.macedoniaontheweb.com/forum/interesting-macedonian-books-sources/1...

You can download the whole album in the following link:
http://www.macedonians.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=625&page=11

N.B. A special thank you to Kostas68 for ALL the research and the music.

This folksong from Darnakohoria in Serres region refers to one of the most tragic periods of the history of Macedonian Hellenism,the WW1 era.The eastern part of the modern Greek province of Macedonia was occupied by Bulgaria (1916-17) and thousands of Macedonian Greek civilians were taken as hostages by the Bulgarian military authorities and sent for enforced labour to Bulgaria.It is estimated that 65.000 to 70.000 Greek inhabitants of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace died in Bulgarian concentration camps during WW1 because of the inhuman and cruel conditions.However,some of them didn't lose the love of life and were able to compose songs like this here.
the lyrics of the song go as follows:


Ena poulaki petaxe 'pou mesa ap' tin Athina(2)
egyrize trigyrize na vrei Makedonia(2)
Makedonia xakousti se ola ta kala tis(2)
tin piran tin xegymnosan ta omorfa paidia tis(2)
mazevoun neous kai paidia tous pan sti Voulgaria(2)
mera kai nychta eklaigan na vroun eleftheria(2)
to Kitchovo psilo vouno Thee hamilose to(2)
na do ta Serras ta horia ki ystera ypsose to(2)
Ηristougenna paramoni kampanes evarousan(2)
ki ta kaimena ta paidia Vourgar' ta tyrannousan92)

A small bird flew from inside Athens
it was roaming around looking for Macedonia
famous Macedonia with all her beauties
they took away from her they deprived her of her beautiful children
they gather youngsters and children and send them to Bulgaria
all night and all day they were crying looking for freedom
Kichevo is a high mountain,God please lower it
so that I see the villages of Serres and then raise it up again
On Christmass eve the bells were ringing
and the poor lads were tortured by the Bulgarians

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