By George Neokleous
The 21st century has undoubtedly brought radical changes to our Mediterranean island. Cyprus is now an urban-based society with around 67 per cent of Cypriots calling one of the island’s cities home.
The capital and its almost 300,000 inhabitants are evidence of this profound cultural shift. As the effects of Covid-19 and the 2013 financial crisis (and its painful aftermath) are fadimg, a new urban culture is emerging under the light of ‘new age Nicosia’. Nicosians now dress like Parisians to fine dine on fusion dishes their parents and grandparents can’t even pronounce. They dress like Berliners to rave until dawn in temporary yet remarkably impressive venues somewhere around Nicosia’s periphery and wear thrifted, quirky outfits for brunch that make Athenian hipsters seem like amateurs in their own ‘alternative fashion’ game.
Modern Nicosians love to complain about the notorious lack of public transport, sidewalks and bike lanes yet they consider it absurd if a place does not have parking space within a 2 minute radius. They wake up at 5am to jog, cross-fit and weight-lift but can’t survive without the convenience of ordering delivery at least twice a day. Nicosians now utilise chopsticks with the same effortless ease they can devour a bony kleftiko using their bare hands. They can examine and criticise an oat-milk matcha with the same intuition their grandparents judged their neighbour’s Cyprus coffee.
‘Lefkosiates’ of the 2020’s are fully conscious and aware of global cultural trends but are also embracing their own unique, Cypriot identity. From young local artisans reviving traditional crafts with contemporary twists to urbanites in their 20s and 30s dancing to traditional tunes of the lute and the violin in urban fairs. For some, a cultural revival manifested through posters and graffiti in the Cypriot dialect around the old walled town while for others, a vulgar, commercialised caricature of Cypriot tradition.
It seems that this emerging culture is here to stay. Modern Cypriots will keep on cherishing their pastel coloured handmade candles and minimalist, Pinterest worthy furniture with as much pride as they display for their grandma’s heirlooms, golden jewellery, lace tablecloths and floral Cyprus coffee sets.
This article could go on and on but the essence can be summed up as follows. The Nicosians (and to an extent Cypriots) of the urban ‘New Age’ are currently positioned in a slightly comedic and unapologetically dynamic liminal head space. They are a playful combination of the ‘refined European’ and the ‘explosive Mediterranean’ with a delightfully Cypriot flair.
All in all, the New Age Nicosians just like the hundreds of generations before them, are still the living embodiment of their city; a perfectly disorganised chaos of conflicting influences nestled between churches and mosques, obsequiousness and pride, the rural and the urban, the refined west and the vibrant east.
