Bell-Graham School
Holidays Around
the World
Christmas in Greece
Where
in the World is Greece?
Greece is on the continent of Europe. It is by the Mediterranean Sea. The
Greek people live in Greece. The language they speak is also called Greek.
A holiday greeting in Greece is Kala Christouyenna. This means Merry
Christmas.
When
is Christmas celebrated in Greece?
The Christmas season begins forty days before Christmas Day. Christmas
is celebrated on December 25th. It is a holiday that celebrates the birth
of Jesus. The Christmas season ends on January 6th. During this time the Greek
people do not eat meat or dairy foods. The temperatures during the Christmas
season are mild and usually rainy.
Is
there a special Gift Giver in Greece?
The children believe that St. Basil delivers their Christmas presents and
visits them by boat. They receive their gifts on January 1st.
What
special food do the Greeks eat?
A sponge cake is baked with a coin inside of it. This sponge cake is
called vasilopets. The cake is broken into small pieces for
everyone to share. The animals in their family get pieces of this cake too.
The first piece is saved for St. Basil; the second piece is saved for Christ;
the third piece is shared between the animals and the fourth piece is not
eaten. It symbolizes the belongings the family has been blessed with and the
rest of the cake is shared between the family members. When they eat
pieces of this cake it means the family will be blessed in the next year and
remain healthy. The family member who finds the coin in their cake will
light a candle in church on Christmas Day.
A special treat is the Christopsomo
(bread of Christ) and kourabiedes. The Christpsomo
is a simple cake or sweet bread decorated with nuts. It usually
has an ornament that represents the family’s profession baked into the
crust. The Kourabeides are small cakes covered with powdered
sugar. If these small cakes are diluted with honey then they are called
melomacaroma.
After the family eats their dinner, some families lift the table three times
for good luck.
How
do the Greek's decorate their houses?
Some families decorate a Christmas tree and put it up
on Christmas Eve. Some of the ornaments you might find on their tree
might be bowls, dolls, toys and boxes. These are the kinds of gifts
they will receive on January 1st. Sometimes small gifts are placed on their
Christmas tree and they must stay on them until January 1st.
In many Greek homes there is a small wooden bowl filled with water.
A piece of wire is placed over the edges of the bowl to hang a small piece
of basil wrapped around a wooden cross. The basil is dipped in the water so
it won’t dry out. Once a day the mother or another family
member dips the cross and basil into holy water and sprinkles each room in
the house. This is supposed to keep the “goblins” away from
the house. These goblins are known as killantzarol and only
come during the Christmas season.
Some people believe that the custom of hanging stockings came from Greece.
Saint Nicholas, who was a Greek Bishop, dropped a gold coin down a man’s
chimney so that his daughter could marry. The gold coin landed in
his daughter’s stocking drying by the fireplace. Children began
putting their stockings up hoping they might find a small gift inside
of them.
What
are some other special traditions?
In some of their towns, you will
find the streets lit with lights and decorated boats which remind them of
their Greek Merchant fleet, which is like our Navy.
Sometimes on Christmas Eve children travel from house to house singing Christmas carols with small metal triangles or clay drums. The children are given sweets and dried fruits from neighbors.
Another tradition is to keep a fire burning in the fireplace at all times during the Christmas season. This keeps goblins from coming into their houses during Christmas and being naughty.
On Christmas Eve sometimes the boys and girls go out and sing Christmas songs in the street and offer families good wishes. Sometimes they are accompanied by other children playing steel triangles, flutes or small drums. If people like the way they sound, they might be given walnuts, almonds, cookies, and candy or dried figs. If they live in a big town, sometimes they might even get some coins.
Some Greek families go to church on Christmas Day at 4:30 a.m. and some begin their day by going to church at 7:00 a.m. When they return from church the family table is filled with Christmas treats. Some of these treats are: nuts, oranges, tangerines and pomegranates.
Non-Fiction
Christmas in Greece. World Book
