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 Greek Christmas Traditions December 02, 2004 9:42 AM

Greek Christmas Traditions

One of the most humorous Greek folk legends, is the legend of the "kalikantzaroi".   The kalikantzaroi are tiny little creatures that look like elves.   They live in the depths of the earth where their mission is to chop at a huge tree trunk that is the earth's foundation.   They work all year round to accomplish this. &nbspRight when they are about to finish the job, Christmas day arrives and they surface on earth for twelve days (from December 25 through January 6).   During their visit they create havoc and play tricks on people.   As a matter of fact, if anything unexplainable happens during those twelve days, the Greeks blame these creatures.   Many leave their fireplace on for the duration of the twelve days to prevent the creatures from entering their house (they usually come in through the chimney). &nbspThe "kalikantzaroi" are afraid of fire, light, the cross, and holy water.   For this reason, they disappear on the day of Epiphany when all the waters are blessed.   However, when they return to the depths of the earth, they find the earth's tree trunk completely restored, due to the miracle of Christ's Birth, so they have to start their mission to destroy the earth all over again.

On Christmas Eve, the children go from house to house to sing Christmas carols.   They knock on the door and when the host/hostess opens, they ask: "May we sing?".   They have to ask because if there is a recent death in the family, they are not allowed to sing.   When the host/hostess answer "go ahead, sing" they begin:

Kalin esperan archontes
ki an ine orismos sas
Chirstou tin thea gennisi
na po, na po st' archontiko sas......

When they finish singing carols, they yell "Merry Christmas", and the host/hostess gives them pastries, or money.

In Greece, the Christmas liturgy is done on Christmas Eve around midnight.   When the liturgy is over and the parishioners return home, many families eat chicken soup with egg and lemon (avgolemono), Christmas bread, and pastries, such as kourapiedes and melomakarona.   The traditional Christmas dinner is stuffed turkey.   In Greece they do not exchange gifts Christmas day but New Year's Day.

Most Greek households decorate Christmas trees which they take down on St. John's day, January 7th.   In some homes, though, especially in cities with ports, they decorated small boats instead of trees.


http://www.greekamericanmall.com/TraditionsEng.htm  [ send green star]
 
Boo January 05, 2006 2:30 PM

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