Bloody games

Not all traditions are worth preserving. If they were, our culture would have stagnated. This remark may sound unbearably self-evident, but events have demonstrated that this is not the case. 

The serious injury of an 8-year-old girl by a stray bullet in a village in Viotia during the Easter celebrations on Sunday was yet another example that deadly habits continue under the dubious mantle of “customs.” 

It is up to the local communities themselves to reflect upon, and abolish, these frustration-venting bloody games. To do this, local officials will first have to stop using tradition as an alibi and stop using populist rhetoric when people’s lives are at risk.