CRISTOUGENNA

CHRISTMAS

 

 

    In Greece, as in most parts of the world, Christmas is regarded as one of the most – if not the most – solemn festivities of the calendar. This is particularly true for children, and we will soon comprehend why. As a matter of fact in every city and village of Greece, on Christmas eve children form small groups, walk around the streets going from house to house singing special carols that may vary from one district to another. While singing, the children beat on little drums and iron triangles. These carols are known as κάλαντα (kŕlanda), a term derived from the Latin word calendae. This going from house to house and, as we shall see shortly, the disguising and masquerading rituals date back to a very ancient fertility magic, and are a continuation of an ancient tradition which can be traced back to pagan festivals held in the winter, in  particular the Calendae, the most important celebration in the Roman calendar. One of the main elements of these feasts was the masquerade, introduced from Greek worship, and specifically the Dionysiac cult cycle.

    For those interested in linguistic geography, it is worth mentioning that in Siatista and other areas of Western Macedonia, for example, the word kŕlanda has been transformed into kolianda. Moreover the meaning of this term has expanded to include not only the carols, but also the special cakes that every housewife bakes on the occasion for the young songsters through the entire period preceding Christmas Eve. Finally, on the day dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the children go around the streets singing:

 

Children, here are the Kolianda

Get ready, all of you,

Get your sticks

And go to Saint Lias.

 

    This walking around goes on in every town and village of Western Macedonia. until the 22nd of December. In the afternoon of the 23rd the children congregate in the squares or in the crossroads of their neighborhood, where they bring bundles of wood and hay with which they make a bonfire, in the middle of which they place a long pole upright. When the fire begins to burn, they go around it in a circle and start to dance, beating their drums, tinkling their bells and singing the kolianda. Sometimes older people who stand by watching, enter into the circle too. It may happen that in addition to older people some skilled musicians become involved also, and accompany the little singers with their musical instruments like fiddles and clarinets. The flaming bonfires and the chimes of the bells seem to symbolize the watch kept by the shepherds on Christmas night.

    Next day, very early in the morning, while the children are still sleeping, it is customary for mothers to lay near the bed of every child a plate full of kolianda, a stick called τζουμάκα (tzoumŕka), thin at one end and  thick at the other, and a small bag. Thus as soon as the children wake up they discover all the instruments they need for their carol singing, and rush to get organized to start going around al day, knocking on the door of every house.

    When a lady opens the door, the children begin to sing Christmas carols for her, but may even add some obsequious verses for each member of the household, in proportion to his status and age. At the end of their singing, which is always concluded with the usual wishes, as a recompense they are given kolianda, figs and nuts which they put into their bags. In the countryside, if a housewife happens to possess a chicken run, she invites the children to go in the house and sit on the floor because it is believed that, by so doing, the hens will lay more eggs. In Athens and other large towns, children are also presented with a few coins which they divide up between themselves.

    Let’s now talk about a custom extensively widespread in many rural areas of northern Greece and in Pontos (Asia Minor), the so called masquerade of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Although its original purpose to guarantee a good season is now dormant, such a custom still survives in places like Karoti, Evros, in Thrace. On Christmas day and Boxing day the so-called Μπαμπαλιανοί (Babalianě) are celebrated: two men – one of whom acts for a woman – with blackened faces, wearing rough woolen mantles, bells around the waist and carrying an image of a newborn baby, go round the village stopping in front of every house, dancing and singing kŕlanda like this one:

We’ll have Christ for forty days and we’ll wait good-naturedly

And for forty days we’ll throw ourselves into singing.

Now that Christ was born in milk and honey,

Only the nobles eat honey, the masters drink milk

And the candles drip down at the portal of the church. 

 

    In other villages  of the same region, like Mandra and Lavara, the Ρουγάτσια (Rougŕtsia) are celebrated, a name used for the Youletědes masquerades in numerous areas of Macedonia and Thrace. All the Rougatsŕdes carry bells and, starting from the church and the house of the priest of the village, go around the houses singing kŕlanda and Christmas greetings:

 

Arise, my Master, and sit on thy throne,

Take the pomegranate in  thy hand, wash and come down.

All the churches are tolling, the monasteries are chanting,

And little children are reading the gospel.

 

    Besides the usual kŕlanda sung on Christmas, in Thrace there is one which is very popular and, with negligible variations according to the area, people sing it throughout the forty-day period of abstention which starts on Saint Philip’s day (14th November) at home and at νυχτέρια (nychtčria), when people get together to help one another in carrying out night works such as threading tobacco leaves,  stripping the corn cobs etc. This song considers the Nativity of Christ from a human point of view resplendent with surprise for the stunning event.

Forty days, forty nights

our Virgin had bellyache,

had bellyache. She beseeched

the Apostles, the Hierarchs

to go and bring apples and pomegranates,

the Apostles go for apples,

the Hierarchs run for pomegranates.

By the time they’ve gone, by the time they come

our Virgin has given birth,

given birth, given birth.

 

In another variation the Virgin beseeches the Archangels and the Apostles.

The Archangels run for the myrrh

and the Apostles look for midwives.

By the time they’ve gone, by the time they come

our Virgin has given birth

in the gardens, among the cypresses.

She shines like the sun, she shines like the moon,

she shines on this householder

    In times of yore the ritual of the Yule masquerades contained a much more unequivocal message linked to fertility rituals. In Kastaničs, for example, on Christmas, men with a blackened face, clad in sheepskins and carrying bells celebrated the Δυλίγαροι (Dylěgaroi). This rite included a basic element in fertility magic, constituted by a mime/parody of plowing and sowing, as well as a pretended sexual intercourse between the hero and his would-be wife.

    To Christmas dinner are devoted the most significant preparations prior to Christmas Eve. In the countryside it is time to butcher the pig which the household has been fattening since mid-summer. The slaughtering of the pig is achieved through a series of rigorous acts which certainly are the continuation of  very ancient sacrificial acts. Pork constitutes the main dish of the Christmas dinner, although for some families it is quite usual to have chicken the first day and butcher the pig the following day.

 

On Christmas Eve every housewife bakes a χριστόψωμο (christňpsomo) – literally Christ-bread. It is cooked in large sweet loaves and in a great assortment of shapes, with patterns beautifully engraved on top of the crust, usually inspired by the profession of one of the family’s member. For instance, a farmer’s Christmas loaf can be decorated with a plough, oxen, a wine barrel and a house. Special loaves are baked for the cattle and the hens, and is kept at home for the whole year, nailed to the wall. The loaves baked for the cattle are generally broken to crumbs, salted and given to the animals to protect them against diseases.

    On Christmas day the whole family sits at a table that was magnificently laid the preceding day. First of all the Christmas loaf and a pot of honey are placed on the table by the housewife who distributes around them dried fruit like almonds walnuts, hazelnuts. Then it is the turn of the master of the house: he stands up and, holding a knife in his right hand, makes the sign of the cross over the loaf, wishes everybody χρόνια πολλά (chrňnia pollŕ, many happy returns), slices the loaf and gives a slice to each member of the family, who starts his Christmas meal with a titch of honey. Afterwards everybody stands up and lifts up the table three times with his hands. There follows a number of other dishes that differ according to the locality. Moreover, during the blessed period of Christmas, some people may seek out the profusion of goods in the house in ways dominated by symbolism and unusual cult performances of very ancient origin, like the custom to place nine dishes on the table on Christmas eve. The holiness of the number nine is corroborated by the incensing of the dishes, performed  with incense which had been previously kept placed on a ploughshare which has been considered holy since ancient times, and a symbol to guarantee fertility for the fields and the womenfolk.

    According to a superstitious belief profusely widespread throughout the Greek world, on Christmas Eve the Καλικάντζαροι (Kalikŕntzaroi), sort of gnomes, imps, goblins, appear on earth where they remain until the Twelfth Night. they are up to all sorts of mischief. Whichever calamity takes place in the houses in the course of these days, is ascribed to the Kalikŕntzaroi. It is believed that they enter the houses from the chimneys and let themselves go to all kinds of mischief like turning out the fires and making the milk go sour. They also seem to be very fond of muddling up the food in the dishes, spoiling the cakes and braiding the tails of the horses together. Some parents intimidate their disobedient children saying they will ask the Kalikŕntzaroi to carry them away if their behavior won’t get better. The Kalikŕntzaroi always appear at midnight and fade away the moment the cock starts crowing at crack of dawn.

    In order to prevent the Kalikŕntzaroi from going into the houses and causing their troubles, in most parts of Greece resort to all sorts of tricks In the Peloponnese, for example, they throw distasteful smelling herbs in the fireplaces or they hang colanders behind the doors. It is believed that as soon as the Kalikŕntzaroi see the colanders, they just cannot help starting to count the holes in the colanders, and they get so captivated by this activity that when the sun rises without their having finished their counting, they must disappear.

    But housewives do also their best to be on good terms with the Kalikŕntzaroi: that is why on the night before Epiphany, when the elfs have to leave, the good ladies hang a sausage for them on a hook in the fireplace, and throw on the roof pancakes especially made for them.

    January 1st is Saint Basil’s day. On the eve of this feast, children go from house to house again singing kŕlanda, holding a green stick with which they tap the master of the house and the members of his family on the shoulder, while they sing to them good wishes. The housewife gives the children bread rolls, cakes, dried fruit and sometimes coins. 

    In every house in Greece it is also customary to cut the βασιλόπιττα (vassilňpitta), or Saint Basil’s cake, which is made with milk, eggs, butter and sugar. The vassilňpitta has a round shape and after it has been baked a coin is introduced in it. It takes the master of the house to cut the vassilňpitta: first he cuts a slice for Saint Basil, then a slice for the house, then one for each member of the family, in accordance with a rigorous hierarchy. To end with, he cuts a slice for the poor. Whoever gets the slice containing the coin, will be the lucky person of year.  It is generally believed that on New Year’s day Saint Basil descends to earth to visit every household.

    January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany, is the day on which the Orthodox Church celebrates Jesus Christ’s baptism in the Jordan river by Saint John. On this day the waters are blessed and, according to popular belief, the evil spirits bequeath the earth and the water of the sea becomes drinkable and safe for sailing. In the course of the ritual of the blessing of the sea, in Greece, a priest tosses a cross into the water, then some boys vie with one another to rescue it and get a blessing in return for their action.

   

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Greek Tradition, National Tourist Organization of Greece, Information Department, Athens s. d.

Thrace, General Secretariat of the Region of East Macedonia-Thrace, Komotině, November 1994