Skotino: The Greek Village That Forgot How to Smoke

A tiny java store connected Crete. Credit: Romtomtom/Wikimedia commons

For much than 50 years, nary nonmigratory successful the colony of Skotino successful the Hersonissos municipality of Heraklion, Crete, has taken a puff connected a cigarette.

The picturesque small municipality is simply a paradise for non-smokers successful a state wherever smoking is prevalent.

Today, nary 1 remembers however the residents took the determination to faithfully adhere to their ain anti-smoking vows. But somehow, each and each 1 of them managed to make a nonsmoking tradition, arsenic portion of an unwritten instrumentality unsocial to Greece.

Their determination to speech the unhealthy wont of baccy smoking with a healthier mode of beingness wasn’t based connected immoderate anti-smoking run imposed from extracurricular oregon immoderate benignant of ineligible prohibition.

Video screenshot/YouTube/Nikos Sarantos

The astir seventy residents of Skotino cannot adjacent truly explicate wherefore they made their determination to crook their backs connected smoking, but implicit the years, the inclination has go their communal purpose. And it has present evolved implicit the years into thing of an unwritten law.

“Here successful Skotino, we similar to portion a raki oregon wine”

“There has been nary smoking successful this colony since the 1970s. This has passed connected to our children, with the effect that adjacent the younger procreation does not person this atrocious habit,” Zaharias Moudatsakis precocious told the section quality site Cretapost.

The residents of Skotino are arrogant of their palmy absorption against smoking and they are lone perplexed arsenic to wherefore determination aren’t galore much radical who travel their lead.

“I americium precise funny to cognize wherefore radical smoke. We cognize however harmful is smoking… Here successful Skotino, we similar to portion a raki oregon a vino alternatively than airy up a cigarette,” section nonmigratory Vasilis Zervakis said.

Cigarettes are simply not sold successful the village, and adjacent astir visitors respect Skotino’s unwritten law.

Greek writer Nikos Sarantos visited Skotino and produced this fascinating video of the 1 and lone non-smoking colony successful Greece, a European federation which different has a precocious proportionality of smokers.