The document details the Greek Christmas traditions as part of the Comenius Project on European folklore, highlighting the Dodekaimero festival. It emphasizes important customs such as singing carols ('kalanda'), attending midnight mass, and the significance of traditional foods like 'Christopsomo'. Additionally, it describes various celebratory practices aimed at warding off bad spirits, including the use of bonfires and the placement of basil and a cross in homes.

1. Comenius Project
“Understanding and celebrating European folklore”
Greek presentation
1st meeting
29th October - 2nd November 2012
Czech Republic, Usti nad Labem
Fakultní základní škola Ústí nad Labem
Charalampos Passalis, Aspa Karasouli, Ariadni Katzika

2. GREEK
CHRISTMAS
UNDERSTANDING
AND
CELEBRATING
EUROPEAN FOLKLORE

3. The celebration of Christmas in the Greek tradition
Dodekaimero (a period of 12
days) consists of the 3 main
celebrarions of Christianity:
 Christmas –the Birth (25/12)
 New Year - Circumcision (1/1)
 The Baptism (6/1)
Origin of greek customs:
Festivals of the Roman
Calendar that had integrated
features of the Ancient Greek
cult.
Main focus of all ceremonies:
Transition from the old to the
new , - from sterility to revival.

4. Carols (Κάλαντα)
On Christmas Eve, New Year Eve and
Epiphany Eve children often go out
singing 'kalanda' (carols) in the streets.
They play drums and triangles as they
sing. Sometimes they will also carry
model boats decorated with nuts painted
gold. Carrying a boat is a very old custom
in the Greek Islands. If the children sing
well, they might be given money or nuts,
sweets and dried figs to eat.

5. Children Singing Christmas Carols in Greece
Kalanda by Nikiphoros Lytras.

6. Traditional Food

Going to a Midnight Mass Service is very important for most
Greeks. After the service people can go home and end their
Advent fast.

The main Christmas meal is often lamb or pork roasted in an
oven or over an open spit. It's often served with a spinach and
cheese pie and various salads and vegetables.

Other Christmas and new year delicacies include 'Baklava' (a
sweet pastry made of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and
sweetened with syrup or honey), Kantaifi (a pastry made from
a special form of shredded filo dough and flavored with nuts
and cinnamon), Theeples (a kind of fried pastry), Kourabiedes
(a pastry made from butter, flour, almonds and caster sugar),
Melomakarona (sweets with honey and nuts).

7. Traditional Sweets
Melomakarona
Siropiasta- Baklavas
Kantaifi

8. Christopsomo


Christopsomo, or Christ’s Bread, is
considered a sacred tradition in
many Greek Orthodox homes, and
the care with which it is made is said
to ensure the well-being of the home
in the year to come. Only the purest
and most expensive ingredients are
used. The bread is often decorated
with pieces of dough formed into
representations of the family’s life
(boats, animals, etc.).
The father at the Christmas family
dinner crosses the “Christopsomo”
and gives a piece to everybody
wishing them Merry Christmas and
“Hronia Polla”

9. Decorations

Christmas Trees are becoming more popular in Greece, but they aren't
traditional. Instead most houses will have a shallow wooden bowl with a
piece of wire suspended across the rim. A sprig of basil wrapped around a
wooden cross hangs from the wire. Some water is kept in the bowl to keep
the basil alive and fresh. Once a day, someone, usually the mother of the
family, dips the cross and basil into some holy water and uses it to sprinkle
water in each room of the house. This is believed to keep the 'Kalikantzaroi'
(bad spirits) away.

The first Xmas tree was decorated in Greece at the exterior of the palace in 1833

10. Christmas Decorative Ship
Thessaloniki- Aristotelous
Square

11. Saint Basil – Presents

In Greece, presents are often
brought to children by Aghios
Vassilis / Άγιος Βασίλης (Saint
Basil) on the 1st Janaury.

1st January, New Years Day, is St
Vasilis's Day who is also known
as St Basil the Great.

12. Christmas Superstitions
In favour of health, welfare and fertility

13. Kalikantzaroi
(bad spirits)

The Kalikantzaroi are meant to
appear only during the 12-day
period from Christmas to the
Epiphany (January 6th). They
are supposed to come from
the middle of the earth and get
into people's house through
the chimney! The Kallantzaroi
do things like put out fires and
make milk go off. Having a fire
burning through the twelve
days of Christmas is also
meant to keep the Kallantzaroi
away.
Legends : Kalikantzaroi and
the tree of life

14. Bonfires
A celebratory activity
taking place in several
places.
It symbolizes the
prevention from evil
spirits and the victory of
the good ones

15. Fire customs


Burning a log at
Xmas night is a widespread habit.
The ash is regarded a
lucky charm against
misfortunes

16. Celebratory disguises
Continuity and survival of ancient greek
festivities, mainly dedicated
to Dionysus – the god of wine and enjoyment.

17. Merry Christmas
Καλά Χριστούγεννα
Χρόνια πολλά