In Greece, the preparations for Lent get off to a colourful start. On the last Sunday before Lent everyone takes part in their local town carnival and the next day, Clean Monday, they go out into the countryside and fly kites.

In Tyrnavos, however, Lent starts differently. The inhabitants of this small Thessalian town do not fly kites, but huge penis-shaped balloons.

The balloons are not the only provocation. On the Sunday and on Clean Monday, Tyrnavos resounds to the Phallus Festival.

In the town at that time of year, you would be hard put to find any object which hasn't got a distinctive phallic shape. Bakeries sell graphic loaves of bread. Manufacturers of the famous local tsipouro offer their liquor in ceramic mugs and bottles with the same bodily outlines. Confectioners have already prepared enormous quantities of lollipops in all shades of bright pink, electric blue and blinding green. You can guess what shape they are. Vendors have piled their stalls with all kinds of phallic objects, most of them cheap Madein- China stuff. You can find everything from a pair of glasses with a penis instead of a nose to phallic-shaped bottle openers.

The Phallus Festival involves a series of rituals. The official ceremony consists of open-air performances of local folk songs. Those who speak Greek will recognise words which could be defined as obscene, to put it mildly.

The informal festivities are rather more fun, and not only because many of the revellers in the streets are also singing smutty songs. Groups of men adorned with ceramic phalluses roam around Tyrnavos. They elect a so-called chief – or arhibouranioti – and honour him by crowning him with a penis.

Masked men circulate among the tables of the taverns – during the carnival in Tyrnavos you have to queue to get into a restaurant or a café – spending time with anybody willing to buy them a drink of tsipouro or ouzo. They perform bawdy pantomimes, usually inviting the ladies at the table to join in them.