Tradizioni e cultura
Traditions of the Greek people of today have inherited from their ancestors and still keep alive.
Religious ceremonies, feasts, various customs and manners during the religious holidays and several interesting aspects of Greek folklore is here described. Typical elements of the traditional art and music, which are now invaluable reminders of cultural heritage. The most important Greece products, connected to the traditional Greek cuisine are here listed together with the traditional music, instruments and dances accompanying the Greek feasts. Modern Greek people are of a purely Mediterranean temperament and bear many unique features, emotional and enthusiastic, stubborn and easily offended some-times, and loud-mouthed. Greeks are patriots, defending their country passionately in all sorts of manifestations. They are are versatile, friendly, hospitable, considerate and generous. All Greeks love good food, all sorts of entertainment and keep traditions with religious respect, as it is part of their inherited history and culture. Weddings in country side and litanies are very impressive.
The Easter, the Christmas and all annual holidays are with many traditional customs and special dishes, cakes and dining is different and varies in each occasion. Most of the ceremonies, religious processes and procedures are dated from BC years, really ancient, which is added in the Greek Orthodox religion in the Bible as Holy Tradition, such the Epiphany (the ancient Athenian Plenteria), the Carnival (ancient Spartan Carnia), Easter lamb on the spit (described by Homer in Iliad three thousand years ago!), Clean Monday (Athenian Diaseia), the procession of the Epitaph, the pilgrimage and offerings (tama). Cooking in traditional way on religious events-holidays is basically the same all over Greece with local additions per region fully exploiting their local products, It is not co-incidence that the ancient Greek religious and events holidays were sixty, the same number as today! Thessaly and Macedonia are the favorite goods sources. Especially multicultural Thessaloniki, the heart of Macedonia has always been considered a model of delicious food as trend-setter. Typical, traditional Greek products are: olives, wine, feta cheese, tsipouro, ouzo, raki (Crete), pistachio, mastic of Hios island and a lot more.
Christmas is the most important religious holiday, second only to Easter and is celebrated on 25 December as in all countries in the world. Children knocking the doors of houses and shops sing the Christmas Carols, the dining table is specially decorated with traditional kourambiedes and melomakarona. Interestingly enough, in many parts of the country people make offering of wine or olive oil in to the fire place or few drops on the land (spondee), just as ancient Greeks did in to the fire of goddess Hestia (Vesta in Latin). The goblins (Kalikantzari) according the tradition belong to a special category of evil spirits, teasers, who make their appearance 12 consecutive days from Christmas to Epiphany (January 6). They emerge from underground to tease human. People picture them with dark hairy, goat-like bodies, roaming the the place, dancing and spoiling food, being noisy, upset people, yet without causing them any harm. In many places of the country-side, people make big fire at the fire-place to fend them-off from houses, the ash remains are used to make charms for protection against evil at homes or in the farm-fields. The goblins disappear for good and rush to vanish in the bowels of the earth, on Epiphany Day, when the priests bless the waters (ancient Athenian process of the Plenteria).
The New Year's eve, children go from house to house singing the carols, but this time the music, the content and wishes are different from Christmas, sometimes children carry a decorated toy-boat. Unfortunately we do not come across boats, but only in some shops or windows. These traditional boats are compared to the ships that ancient Athenians carried on wheels, as at the Panatheneans the greatest ancient Athenian festival, celebrating the birthday of the patron goddess of the city Athena, it is considered of great importance who will cross first the doorstep of the house, in other words, who will bring them good luck or podariko, as they call it. Usually is a boy, carrying a icon and entering the house with the right foot first, sometimes smashing a pomegranate, wishing Happy new year (Kali Hronia). Generally, people celebrate the first day of the year, having parties visiting relatives and gambling. But which is most important custom for Greeks on the first day of the year? Is cutting the Vasilopitta of course. It is a pie dedicated to Saint Basil, whose memory is honored on January 1. It is a big round cake, a sort of brioche, which is decorated from dough and iced sugar. According to tradition, housewives bury a golden or other price-coin into the underside of the vasilopitta so that no-one will know where exactly it is hidden. When the family is gathered around the dinner table, the father carries out the traditional ritual with a knife: he makes first the sign of the cross 3 times on the cake, wishing Happy New Year to everyone and then cuts it into pieces. He starts by naming each piece according to where it goes, the first to Jesus Christ, the second to St. Basil, the next on the house, and then to members of his family. Whoever finds the hidden coin will be lucky during all the year.
Christian Orthodox consider Epiphany to be important holiday, as it commemorates Christ's baptism in the river Jordan. In every part of Greece, near sea, lakes and rivers, the priests of each parish, accompanied by a procession of chanters and faithful people, throws a cross into cold waters, while all young lads dive in to fetch it. The one who finds it first is considered blessed, capable and fortunate. In some coastal areas in particular, the inhabitants carry the farming tools, the holy icons and family icon stand by the sea, to clean them in sea-water. This special custom reminds of the ancient Athenians who would carry the statue of the goddess Athens to the coast of Faliro, in order to clean it in the sea (the Plenteria).
The Carnival (or Apokries) is a 3 week period before the Sarakosti (40 days before Easter). Before the Lent period people need to have fun. From old times to these days, in different parts of the country, bands of people dress-up in fancy or funny costumes, sing, dance and give performances. On Skyros island, some men dresses up in woman's wedding dresses, and some others wear masks, while fifty or more sheep-bells are hanging around their waist. Hand in hand, they dance and upset everybody on the island with the loud sound of their bells. In older times, at some parts of Greece they celebrate the Carnival in very cheerful atmosphere, they dance traditional, with live music and as part of the dance is the gaitanaki, a tall pole ornament with tapes in the colors of the Greek flag, around which they dance. The city of Patra is the most popular Carnival city, with Xanthi and Naousa in North Greece the also favorites. In Athens the Carnival activities are concentrated in Plaka area, east of the Acropolis hill.
The procession of the Epitaph on Good Friday, the Greek flags flies half-mast in all state buildings and churches. The church bells toll, while the faithful bow before church epitaphs. In the evening everybody carrying a candle in hand, follows devoutly the holy process of the Epitaph. First comes the band of musicians slowly pacing along, playing funeral marches and sacred music. Scouts or soldiers standing on either side of the procession, hold their guns with their barrels pointing down as a sign of mourning. Four or more men, surrounded by bishops and priests, carry on their shoulders the flower-decked epitaph with all due honours. Representatives of local authorities and people accompany the epitaph, with candle in their hands. The process begins and ends at the same church. Often two processions meet, in which case the chanters sing all together.
On Saturday of Holy Week-Christ's Resurrection, in the evening the faithful go to church, usually dressed in their Sunday best. There they light their long white candles helping one another, with the flame of the Holy-Light (Agio Fos). Easter mass reaches its climax at midnight, with church bells chiming joyously and firework dispays lighting up the churchyards. People exchange wishes and tell each other Christos Anesti (means Christ has risen), then they walk slowly at their homes holding the candles burning the Holy Light. According the costume, the man of the house makes a sign of the cross high up on the door ledge using the smoke of the candle, thus leaving the mark of the cross there for the rest of the year. On returning home the family eats the mageiritsa and finish the dinner cracking their red Eastern eggs. Eastern Sunday is considered the most important feast for Christians Orthodox. Early morning in the house yard the men get the coal fire ready to do the lamb or kid on the spit, which is the traditional Easter dish. Every year, Greek people in the company of friends and relatives, enjoy this festive meal in a joyful atmosphere, with lots of dancing, singing and drinking wine. At Eastern, women traditionally knead tsourekia (brioches) and dye eggs red. See our Christian tour Saint Paul footsteps.
1 May Day, has always been celebrated in Greece as the victory of summer over winter.and of life over death. People go to the countryside where everything is in blossom and pick wild flowers to make a wreath and hang it on their front-doors or balconies. Every May 21, many women and women celebrate their name day, since this is Saint Constantine's and Saint Helen's day (the first Emperor of Byzantium and his mother), very common names in Greece. For this reason, on that day, religious fire-walking rites take place in Northern Greece, the so-called Anastenaria. Men and women walk over the the burning coals holding icons of the Saints. This rites is accompanied by traditional music and according to religion, it is based on the initiates faith in the protective power of the two saints. It seems that this costume has its origin in antiquity and especially in the worship of god Dionysos. This first appeared in a place very near to the area where fire-walking rites are held.
Farmers' costumes like the one on September 14, the Day of the Holy Cross, is considered an important date for farming activities in Greece. On that day, priests offer basil leaves to the faithful and farmers take to church a mixture of seeds they intent to sow, to have them blessed by the priest. In addition, they offer bunches of grapes to the local saint and to their dead, which reminds the same costume in ancient Greece, when offer were made to the gods. With the grape juice, the must, the housewives make the traditional moustokouloura. Another notable event is the wine feasts that take place in many parts of the country every year and where one can taste various types of local wines.
Another traditional product that is associated with the Greece and which is closely related to the life of the inhabitants of certain islands is the sponge. In the spring, the sponge-divers would set off on their hard and dangerous but also profitable trip, and they would return in the autumn, according the costume, before their departure for their far-away destinations, a big feast would be held with singing and dancing. Fishermen of the island Kalymnos became systematically involved in sponge fishing. Later other sponge-divers followed from the island of Aegina, Hydra and Spetses, since the middle of the 20th century, Kalymnos has been the biggest sponge center of Europe. Greek emigrants in the USA, established a flourishing sponge-fishers community in Florida, which became famous worldwide.
In Greece as in other parts of the world, when a wish is fulfilled or someone escaped a serious danger, as express of thanks is making a votive offering or tama. Offerings in ancient Greece used to be little statuettes, bigger statues, altars, and sometimes monumental buildings, offered as proof of one's gratitude to the gods. Offering to the god of medicine and healing, Asclepios, used to be depict the part of the body that had been cured, such as leg, eyes, ears etc. Every year on August 15, the day the Assumption of the Holy Virgin is celebrated, people from allover Greece and abroad, go on pilgrimage to the island of Tinos (Teenos) to participate in the great litany. The Holy Icon is carried about the island and many faithful people, especially those who are ill, lie crammed in the middle of the road, waiting to be blessed when the icon of the Virgin Mary passes over them. In all churches consecrated to a Saint, whose day is celebrated once a year, it is customary to hold a three day religious festival in the surrounding area. In these festivals are open air markets where man can buy various things such icons, toys, memorabilia, ornaments etc. People of all ages are fond of such traditional summer festivals (panygere), which have been entertaining generations for ages.
Traditional musical instruments from ancient times to these days, have played important role in all social events, as well as in moments of solitude. In ancient times Greeks began to sing songs describing the brave deeds of different eras, in the company of of musical instruments. Later songs and music praise love and which people often dance.The flute is mainly "pastoral" musical instrument, a type of flute the shepherd makes from wood, reed, bronze or iron. The Tsabouna or Guida (the pipes), are 2 different names for the same instrument, made usually by the musician himself out of a goatskin bag. The Lyre (or Lyra) is another ancient instrument, according to mythology the newborn Hermes was the inventor of the lyre, which was made from tortoise shell.The lyra today is the most traditional musical instrument of Crete and some other islands. Similar traditional instrument is the kemetzes which has bottle shaped sound-box and a sort neck. The violin also played as a folk musical instrument, made in the shape of today in the 17th century. The instruments bouzouki and baglamas (which is bouzouki in miniature) have a pear shaped sound-box and are played with a plectrum. The Lute, with a long neck, the mandolin and the guitar accompanies serenades in islands influenced by the culture of Italy. The Kanonaki, the Dulcimer (Santouri) the Tambourine and the Tabla (Toumbeleki), are very known traditional Greek musical instruments.
