Christmas Tradition and Customs
Christmas in Greece is a time for families and friends to get together. There is so much beauty that we all share in our ‘traditions’ that everyone celebrates Christmas in their own special way.
Orthodoxy, being a part of history for centuries, has molded some beautiful festivities that bring the Greeks together because of their mutual love for Christ, while at the same time customs and beliefs from ancient times are integrated creating a unique festive combination.
Towns and villages are decorated and the preparations for the most joyous celebration of Christianity are dressed with carol melodies and scented with the special smells from the kitchens of the homes.
The kalikantzari and the twelve days
The Twelve Days is a folkloric term used by the Greeks since Byzantine times, beginning on the first day of Christmas and ending on the eve of Theophany.
It is a continuous chain of celebrations, a period characterized by religious devotion and many customs.
On these days, the houses became a real warm nest, with boiled new wines, plenty of pork, and big fires in the fireplace, creating a mood for joy, singing, dancing, and feasting.
But it is also considered a dangerous period because at nights, which are the longest of the year, the dreaded Kalikantzaros roam the streets every night and tease people.
They come on Christmas Eve and leave on Theophany.
In the popular imagination these beings of popular tradition are presented in the most descriptive way.
The people believed they were demons and came from the depths of the Earth. The Earth cannot stand in a vacuum but must be supported somewhere. And its support can be no other than a tree. The kalikantzari hold a huge saw and struggle to cut the huge wooden pole that holds the Earth in place, because they want to see it crumble and people suffer.
All year round the kalikantzari under the earth are chopping away, some with an axe, others with a saw or a cleaver, and others with their claws and sharp teeth, trying to cut down the tree that supports the earth. But the trunk is very thick and it takes a lot of effort to cut it down.
When they get very close to their goal, on Christmas Eve, they come out to the surface of the earth for fear of the earth falling on their heads or to celebrate their achievement. They stay with the people until Theophany, when they are forced to return to the earth by the sanctification of the waters.
This period of time - the Twelve Days - is long enough for the tree of life to be reborn and so the Kalikantzari start from the beginning to saw it until the next Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Eve the kalikantzari go up to earth and wait for the daylight to disappear, to emerge one by one from their holes. They are very agile, climbing trees, jumping from roof to roof, breaking tiles and making a lot of noise. Every night of the Twelve Days they attempt to enter the houses through chimneys, keyholes, door and window cracks, to start stirring up whatever they find in front of them and cause damage. They like to splash around in the containers where the housewives keep the oil, in the pans, in the pots, in the dishes and in the food.
As soon as it is dawn, before the cock crow, they become extinct. They are very afraid of the light and so they hide during the day.
People tried to avoid the invasion of the kalikantzari in various ways. Either with the fire that burned constantly in the fireplace , or with various tricks, or acts of religious worship. According to popular belief, the kalikantzari were afraid of the shape of the cross on doors, windows and chimneys, the smell of burning incense and of course of holy water.
Most folk customs during the period of the Twelve Days express in one way or another the meaning of the end and the beginning. These are customs that interpret the anxiety of man before the end of a period of life, a year that ends and a new one begins or the transition from winter to spring.
After the winter solstice on December 21, darkness recedes, light wins the battle and the day grows longer. And as the light increases with the lengthening of the day, so does the hope for the vegetation, and the new production, that awaits the agricultural world on livestock and crops.
The period of the Twelve Days, apart from its enormous religious significance in the life of the people, was also the days when man had to rest and, with renewed strength, begin again the cycle of life, with greater appetite, courage and hope for the future.
This period favoured the creation of traditions and popular beliefs. The kalikantzari' banter was more amusing than frightening. The kalikantzari were harmless after all and never really scared people.
The Christ's wood
In Macedonia, the landlord of the house chooses the strongest olive or pine branch from his field and places it on the fireplace of the house.
This wood, also called "Christmas wood", is burned for the whole Twelve Days of Christmas (from Christmas Day to the Theophany). According to tradition, the burning of the Christmas wood helps Christ to warm himself in the manger in Bethlehem.
Every housewife, before the Christmas tree arrives in her house, should have cleaned the fireplace thoroughly so that there are no residues of old ashes. The chimney must be cleaned with great care, so that the kalikantzari do not find a "foothold" and enter the houses to harm people, as the traditional Christmas tales tell.
On the evening of Christmas Eve, when the whole family is gathered around the fireplace, the landlord lights the new fire and then places the Christmas tree, with a wish to endure throughout the twelve days of the Christmas holidays.
The decoration of the ship
As a country of the sea, Greece had the custom of decorating the ship.
The ship symbolizes the new voyage of man in life, after the birth of Christ.
The Greek traditional boat is a tradition of the old times of our country, where children with love, joy, and creative mind, used to make their own toys, using whatever they had on hand (usually wood and some paper or rags).
Most of the children ended up building the traditional, now, boat, inspired by the long journeys of their loved ones and the nostalgia to see them again.
But it was also a kind of honor and welcome to the sailors returning from their voyages.
Until the first post-war decade, the traditional boat was decorated in many Greek houses and in the hands of children who sang carols. Decorated with colored papers and ropes, it was filled with sweets and Christmas bread from the neighbors. Although this custom has faded, it still holds in the islands, where it comes from.
The Christmas tree displaced the traditional boat that the Greeks decorated on Christmas days. In some areas (mainly on the islands) they still decorate "boats", while in recent years there is a commendable effort of some Municipalities of the country, to restore the custom to its original form, decorating in their squares boats instead of trees.
The decoration of the Christmas tree and the ancient custom of Eiresioni
The ancient Greeks had the custom of Eiresioni.
The Eiresioni was a branch of a wild olive tree, on which they hung white and red ribbons of sheep's wool, on which they tied all kinds of fruits from the autumn harvest: figs, dried fruits, almonds, nuts, cereals, acorns, pomegranates, honey, oil, chestnuts, bread and many other things (except apples and pears).
The red ribbon was said to represent the blood of men and the white one the blood of the gods.
More Christmas customs coming soon...
The "Eiresioni" roamed the streets of Athens on the seventh day of the Pyanopsia, a festival in honor of the god Apollo (14 October - 12 November) by children who sang carols from house to house, taking a tip from the landlord or the lady.
When the children arrived at their own houses, they hung the "Eiresioni" over their front door, where it stayed until the same day of the following year, when, after placing the new one, they took down the old one and burned it.
During the ritual, a young man pure over the branch with wine from a ceremonial amphora and hung it on the gate of the temple of Apollo.
This gesture was an expression of thanks for the fertility of the year that was ending and a request for continued fertility in the following year.
Eiresioni was dedicated to Athena, Apollo, the Sun and the Hours (Eunomia, Dikis and Eirini).
According to tradition, the custom was established by Theseus, when he set out for Crete to kill the Minotaur. Then, he stopped in Delos, where he made a sacrifice to Apollo, saying that if he won the battle with the Minotaur, he would offer him decorated olive branches to thank him. Returning to his homeland, Theseus fulfilled his promise by establishing the institution of the "Eiresioni".
The theocratic regime of Byzantium condemned the custom as idolatrous and forbade its performance.
However, the Greeks who traveled a lot passed it on to the Northern peoples, who, due to the lack of olive trees, decorated branches from the trees that grew in their regions, such as fir trees.
Centuries later, the first Christmas tree in Greece was decorated by the Bavarian King Otto in 1833 at the palace of Nafplion and the Greeks, from the historical memory of "Eiresioni", quickly adopted the Christmas tree with the fir tree (and cypress in some places), slowly replacing the traditional decoration of the ship.
Traditional Greek Carols
The Greek carols are folk songs with wishes that are sung according to the custom before big holidays such as Christmas, Theophany and others, usually by small children or groups of people accompanied by a triangle, lute, drum or flute to houses, shops etc.
The word for carols, kalanda in greek, comes from the word "calenda" which in Latin means the beginning of the month as well as from the Greek verb " καλώ"(call). Their history is connected with ancient Greece as ancient written texts similar to today's carols have been found.
According to the custom small children from early in the morning the day before a great celebration day, go from house to house with their triangles ringing the bell and asking: Shall we say it?
As soon as the house lord answers «Say it» the song starts!
Carols are a mixture of religious and secular content.
They begin mainly with a greeting, then announce the great event that arrives and end with wishes.
The purpose is to excite the listener who according to the custom must give either a good eg sweets, dried fruits (past) or money (today.)
Christmas Eve carols are the most popular with more than 30 different variations in Greece alone. Also, they are generally distinguished in national or urban and in local or traditional (by region).
During the early period of the Reigning Republic, the custom of reciting carols by the men of the palace guard before the Kings was established corresponded to similar customary wishing events in other European Royal Houses.
This custom continues to this day, however, generalized to political figures but also by traditional groups, choirs, and cultural associations.
The message of Christmas eve carols is: Christ is born!
More Christmas customs coming soon...