Transcript Document

The Greek twelve
days
In the folk calendar the
period between Christmas
Eve and Epiphany is called
“Dodekaimero” which
means “twelve days”.
During that period there are
a number of traditions all
around Greece. Their
purpose is to celebrate the
coming of spring and to
enforce the sentiment of
religion and family.
Epiphany is the baptizing of the
darkness of winter to the spring
light, fertility and prosperity. The
fireplaces are burning to keep
away the kalikatzarous, the
“strange elfs” that wander
around and tease people.
Children sing Christmas carols
and women bake delicious
sweets, melomakarona,
kourabiedes. The night at the
church and family gatherings
bring families together.
Each leg represents one of the weeks of the fast before Easter. Some children draw
her for Christmas as well. They paint her and every week they cut a leg, leaving the
last one for Christmas Eve.
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is an important figure for all children in the
world. He visits and gives gifts to all of us.
He arrives on our
chimneys in his sledge
every Christmas Eve.
Every single kid asks
Santa for a gift. Santa
loves children, so well we
also call him “our father”.
Christmas Decorations
When we decorate the house, we
get really busy. We try to make
the house tidy and beautiful. All
the family members work
together.
Children usually decorate the
Christmas tree with their parents,
and they hang up Christmas
socks for Santa Claus.
In the costal areas of Greece an in the islands children use
to decorate a small ship with lights.
Melomakarona
Recipe
For the syrup
Ingredients:
-- 1 ½ cup of honey
-- 1 cup of olive oil
-- 3 cups of sugar
-- 1 cup of corn oil
-- 1 stick of cinnamon
-- ½ cup of sugar
-- 2 cups of water
-- ½ cup of hot beer
--10 carnations
-- 1/3 cup of hot cognac
-- juice ½ lemon
-- a pinch of salt
-- topping
-- some grated cinnamon
-- almonds with
-- some carnation grated
Kali orexi = bon appetite
cinnamon and sugar
- 1 teaspoon of sweet soda
-- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
How to make them: Stir the oils with the sugar,
-- 1 cup of smash almonds
add salt, beer, cognac, cinnamon, carnation, the
grated orange and the juice. Stir the soda and
-- 1 ½ kg of flour
the baking powder with the flour and add it to
-- 1 orange
the mixture. Finally, add the almonds. The
mixture is ready when it does not stick to your
fingers. Bake te dough at 180°C for 40-45 min.
Boil the ingredients for the syrup and dip the
Melomakarona for 1-2 min.
Kalikatzaroi
Once upon a time, people thought that the world
was based on the trunk of a tree. Down there
lived evil hairy creatures with red eyes, who tried
to tear the tree down with axes and saws day
and night. They wished to bring down the tree of
our world. But just before fulfilling their plans,
Christmas was here and they came up to the
surface of the world to have some fun and to
rest.
On Christmas Eve they harassed old women,
teased passengers, jumped and danced all
around the villages.
But people knew their deeds. They also knew that kalikatzaroi were
harmless and afraid of fire. That’s why some people kept the fire burning
for 12 days, while the kalikatzaroi visited the upper world.
Fortunately they were stupid! They never finished what they had started and by
the time of the first cock, they disappeared deep down. Some women left them
pork or sweets outside their houses. Before they could finish anything, daylight was
there and they didn’t have time to enter the house and make fuss. On Epiphany,
when the priest used to bring his cross and some basil with holy water to “agiasei”
the houses, the kalikatzaroi ran away!!! They returned back to the underworld and
started their work again. Next year, on Christmas Eve they would appear again.
Kalanta
In Greece we have a
tradition. Every 24 and
31 of December
children go out and sing
Christmas carols. People
give them money and
they buy presents, or
save the money on their
bank accounts.
Vasilopita
The pie of Saint Vasilis
Saint Vasilis was a bishop in Caesarea in the 3rd century
AD. He was rich, but he gave all his money to the poor.
Once his town was in great danger, so he persuaded
everyone to donate one jewel to save their town. When
the Romans saw how many jewels St. Vasilis had
gathered, they left, knowing that they could never govern
these people.
But St. Vasilis didn’t know which jewel belonged to whom. So he ordered
to prepare as many pies as there were people. Inside each pie he put a
jewel, and then gave them to each family. Like a miracle, every family got
the pie with their own jewels! Since then, in order to remember this story
from the Byzantine era, the Greeks prepare a pie called Vasilopita (=the
pie of St. Vasilis) and put a coin into it. On New Year’s Eve, they cut the
pie into slices, and the one who gets the coin, will be lucky for the whole
new year!
Symbols of the New Year
Rodi
is considered a symbol of prosperity.
On the morning of the New Year the
landlord breaks one in his front door
for good luck with a wish: Let our
home receive as much luck in the
New Year as there are seeds.
Onion
Already in ancient times, people
believed that onions protect us from
evil spirits. They used to hang them on
the door to drive away every bad
persons or spirits.
© class E2 and their teacher K. Apostolopoulou, 2006