The prettiest, happiest time of the year is close and all Greek towns put on their best! Houses, shops, and squares put on a
festive
appearance with decorated Christmas trees and Christmas boats, the
streets and the cafes are lit up with coloured lighting and cheerful
tunes are heard in the streets. Young and old children get ready for
Christmas and New Year’s Day with
customs and traditions whose origin is lost in the mists of time. Join us and be acquainted with some of them through Greek art!
Decorating the Christmas tree…
The festive
tree decoration dates back to antiquity. Ancient Greeks used to dress
olive or bay branches
with red and white ribbons made of wool or with various sweet treats as
a gesture of thanks to the gods for the previous year’s crops and ask
for their favour for the coming year’s harvest. Next, they would carry
the decorated branches in a
procession or they would hang them outside the front door until the beginning of the following year.
Today, in most Greek houses it is customary to
decorate a fir tree,
a practice brought to Greece by the country’s first king, Otto. As
Christmas is drawing near, children look forward to decorating the tree
with great joy, as pictured in the painting “
Christmas Tree” by
Spyros Vikatos, on display at the
National Gallery.
or perhaps … a boat model?
Greece is a maritime nation and as such, it is customary in many islands for the children to decorate
boat models
instead of a Christmas tree. In old times, kids used to carry them
along while they visited houses and sang Christmas Carols; they would
put the treats they received for their singing inside the little boats.
Today, boats are decorated in many Greek houses or squares near areas
with a maritime history such as
Aristotelous square in Thessaloniki.
May we sing the Carols?
Wish making and happy melodies are standard things during the
Christmas period and the New Year’s Day! According to tradition, on the
Eves of Christmas, New Year’s Day and Epiphany Day [January 6], children
visit one neighbourhood after the other, they knock on the door and
ask:
“May we sing the Carols?” By playing their little metal
triangles and their drums, sometimes also harmonicas and accordions and
on the islands violins and guitars, they ‘rain’ wishes and bring joy on
every household.
The most acclaimed picture by a Greek painter, depicting this festive
tradition in an austerely simple and most sensitive manner, is “
Carols” by
Nikiphoros Lytras.
The painting is a major work of art depicting a scene of Greek life,
customs and traditions [called Ethography], heavy with symbolism and
with disarming sincerity.
Pomegranate for good luck
The pomegranate has been the symbol of good fortune, abundance,
youth and fertility since antiquity. The deep red-coloured beneficial
fruit with the wonderful taste and the magic properties has been the
source of inspiration for many artists, such as Georgios Jakobides for his painting ‘Pomegranates’.
According to myth, Persephone, the daughter of goddess Demeter, tasted
the fruit during her stay in Hades; since then the pomegranate became
associated with the regeneration of nature and the cycle of seasons.
On New Year’s Day in many Greek areas, the
householder stands outside the front door and breaks a pomegranate
hitting it hard on the floor so that the seeds may spread everywhere and
bring happiness and good health to the household. So, you too, break a
pomegranate on your doorstep and make your own fervent wish for the New
Year!
Hobgoblins. Visitors on the Twelve Days of Christmas!
From
Christmas Day until the Eve of Epiphany Day, the legend of the
kallikantzaroi [hobgoblins] is reanimated throughout the country. In the
popular imagination they are little monsters with bandy legs and arms,
hunched backs, over-sized ears, and just about any other type of
deformity one could possibly imagine!
For this reason they are doomed to live
underground and throughout the entire year they keep sawing the tree
that supports the world!
At Christmas though, when their sawing is
nearly done, they decide to visit the humans, have fun and play all
kinds of pranks on them! Humans in turn do their best to ward them off
by placing a sieve outside their door or by hanging a large onion!
Painter P. Tetsis has created lively illustrations of hobgoblins in the book Fairies, elves and hobgoblins by Th. Velloudios.
The celebrated folklorist Nikolaos Politis has also made vivid descriptions of goblins in his book titled Traditions.
Season’s Greetings!
(source:visitgreece)
