|
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. Right 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). The "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.
|
