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 kàlanda, 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 kàlanda
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 tzoumàka, 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 Babalianì
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 kàlanda 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 ?????ts?a (Rougàtsia) are celebrated, a name used for the Youletìdes masquerades in numerous areas of Macedonia and Thrace. All the Rougatsàdes carry bells and, starting from the church and the house of the priest of the village, go around the houses singing kàlanda 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 kàlanda 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 nychtèria, 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 Kastaniès,
for example, on Christmas, men with a blackened face, clad in sheepskins and
carrying bells celebrated the Dylìgaroi. 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 christòpsomo
– 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 chrònia pollà,
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 Kalikàntzaroi, 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 Kalikàntzaroi. 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 Kalikàntzaroi to
carry them away if their behavior won’t get better. The Kalikàntzaroi
always appear at midnight and fade away the moment the cock starts crowing
at crack of dawn.
In order to prevent the Kalikàntzaroi 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 Kalikàntzaroi 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 Kalikàntzaroi:
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 kàlanda, 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 vassilòpitta,
or Saint Basil’s cake, which is made with milk, eggs, butter and sugar. The
vassilòpitta 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 vassilòpitta:
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.
Dimitrios S. Loukatos, Eisagogh sthn Ellhnikh laografia, Athens 1978
Thrace, General Secretariat of the Region of East Macedonia-Thrace,
Komotinì, November 1994