Special occasions in Greece
SPECIAL OCCASIONS
To outsiders it seems that "Greeks are always either feasting or fasting."
There is good reason: 98 percent of the Greek population is Greek Orthodox
and the calendar revolves around the fasts and festivals of the Church and
all public and private activities are geared to it. Feasting preceded by
fasting actually only occurs during five important holidays of the year:
Christmas, Carnival Time (Lent), Saint George's Day, Assumption, and
Easter. Other festive days are usually marked with special foods, most
significantly with the inclusion of lamb or kid. Other occasions include
name days, saint's days, weddings, funerals, baptisms, planting or reaping
crops, or the opening of a new business.
Fasting, in Greek Orthodox tradition, is a strictly observed discipline
which includes vegetables, fruits, grains (bread), and olives but no
animal products such as meat or fish and not even wine or oil. Greek
homemakers are scrupulous in their observance of fast days even though
their ingenuity in preparing meals is heavily taxed.
Such piety can be understood when it is realized that for the Greek, the
Church is not just a Sunday matter but an integral part of traditional
everyday life. Papas (the priest) with his long hair, beard, and flowing
robes is deeply involved with every family, and presides over every
occasion with ceremonies, blessings, and often advice. During the 400-year
Turkish occupation, the Church was credited with saving Greek culture and
language and became the source of hope and security to each Greek family.
Having proven itself in the most difficult times, this faith is still a
source of comfort. When talk and worry beads can't solve a problem, many
Greeks prayerfully light a candle to a special saint, consult the papas,
or (when in Greece) make a special pilgrimage to a holy site.
Although traditional daily life is strongly inter-woven with the Church,
there is also a deep belief in the immortal god of Greece. Within this
fabric of mysticism are also some threads of ancient superstitions that
are so much a part of Greek life that it is difficult to draw a line
between custom and belief.
The ten or twenty beads on a string commonly called Greek worry beads do
not have the religious significance of the Catholic rosary; they are used
by all classes as an aid to meditation, a substitute for nervousness, or
simply to "chase the bitterness away". Furthermore, the casting of spells,
the fear of the "evil eye," the concern for "bad-luck Tuesdays," or the
grim connotation given events in May - like the worry beads - are often
practiced more as a custom than out of any tangible conviction.
Nonetheless superstitions persist. Rural children and animals often wear
necklaces of blue beads, and May Day wreaths often include whole buds of
garlic, the blue heads and fresh garlic considered effective means of
warding off the evil eye. The cutting of cloth for clothes, the scheduling
of weddings, and even the planting of flowers during the month of May are
all considered activities fraught with bad luck.
One of the most prevalent superstitions occurs each year in the days between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6). At this time, it is believed that strange crippled ghosts known as kallikandzaris rise from the earth's depths to poison foods and frighten people. For this period of time all edibles are carefully hidden or disguised; torchlight searches from house to house and strong crosses nailed on doors and over windows are believed to help ward off evil attacks. In the evening, sieves are placed on windows and in doorways because it is believed that the ghosts become fascinated by the holes in the sieves and spend the night counting them rather than inflicting harm. The frightening season of the kallikandzaris comes to a close when the papas blesses the waters on January 6, and all the ghosts are believed to return from whence they came.
For the Greeks and for many other people with ancient roots and traditions
and profound religious feelings, myths and even pagan traditions have
become such an integral part of daily life that distinctions or
rationalizations are often difficult to make and the prevailing principle
seems to be quite simply, "Why take a chance?"
The most important festival for the Greeks is Easter, with its emphasis
not on Crucifixion, but on Resurrection. Apokria (carnival time or
a "farewell to meat") is gaily ushered in with parades, costumes, and many
parties filling two weeks of merrymaking before Lent. The forty days of
Lent are solemnly observed with a diet of bread, olives, vegetables,
grains, legumes, and fruits. Invertebrate seafood are used in coastal
areas. Most Greeks observe these fasting traditions strictly during the
first and last week of Lent, while the devout follow the ascetic diet for
the full forty days. But even for them, the usual daily fare of bread and
olives and boiled beans and sliced raw onions may be relieved by a
traditional sweet called halva, made from farina or semolina, and flavored
with almonds and sugar.
The week preceding Easter Sunday is called Holy Week and is busy with the
preparations of the holiday which even include "spring cleaning" indoors
and the exterior whitewashing of all homes. On Maundy Thursday or Holy
Thursday, the lambs are killed and hung, and eggs are hard-cooked then
dyed red and rubbed with oil to make them shine. On Good Friday, the
tsoureki (Easter bread), fragrant with caraway seeds and nestled with
the red eggs, is baked. The evening meal is traditionally bean or lentil
soup flavored with vinegar to represent the vinegar believed given to
Christ when he thirsted. Saturday includes the joyful marketing and
preparations of the festive foods for Easter Sunday. But through all these
preparations, the fast continues with the austere bread, olives, legumes,
and fruits.
The spiritual climax of the Easter festival is the midnight service on Saturday when all lights in the church are extinguished while the papas chants. Finally the announcement of Christos anesti is greeted by the lighting of everyone's candles from the priest's three-branched candelabra. Then, carefully shielding the flame, people carry each candle home to be reverently placed before the family's icon. Now the happily traditional midnight meal of myeritsa soup, olives, tsoureki, and citrus fruits is enjoyed by all. After the meal, the game of egg-cracking keeps everyone laughing.
Easter Sunday finds most of the men busily preparing a shallow trench
filled with glowing charcoal over which the souvla (spit) of lamb
will be cooked with an occasional basting of olive oil and lemon juice.
Soup, stuffed vegetables, and many sweet pastries will be a part of the
festive meal. Understandably, after the austerity of Lent, it will be the
mayeritsa and roasted lamb that will be relished most.
By comparison, Christmas is a much quieter and less significant festival
on the Greek calendar. Fish is traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve and
eel dishes are especially popular. Special sweets such as kourabiedes
(buttery cookies), christopsomo (walnut and sesame seed breads
topped with a cross of dough), and fried treats such as diples and
loukomades, crispy fritters dusted with cinnamon sugar or served
with sugar syrup, are the highlights of the season.
January 1st is called Saint Basil's (Vassilio's) Day and this is the day
not only for exchanging gifts (Saint Basil was known to be a
philanthropist), but also for enjoying old rituals designed to foretell
fortunes in the coming year. Splitting open a pomegranate and counting the
seeds is used to suggest the abundance of the coming year. The evening is
spent singing kalandra (carols) and then at midnight, vasilopeta
(Saint Basil's Cake) is served. Everyone watches the serving with
suspense, for somewhere in the cake a good-luck coin is embedded.
Tradition states that the first slice is for Christ, the next for Saint
Basil, and if one of these should have the coveted coin, a donation must
be made to the church. But if one of the family or guests receives the
slice with the coin, good luck is said to be theirs for the coming year.
Like other Greek occasions, funerals too have a share of both religious
and superstitious ritual. Surviving family members usually eat a quiet
meal of fish, bread, and wine followed by Turkish coffee. Special memorial
services are held on the fortieth day after the death and also on the
first and third-year anniversaries of the death. A special plate of
kolyva is prepared for blessing at the church, then it is eaten by all
the family. Kolyva represents one of the most symbolic dishes: the
wheat for everlasting life, the raisins for sweetness, and the pomegranate
seeds to symbolize plenty. A very old tradition holds that when Greeks
leave a house of mourning, they must sprinkle themselves with water to
drive away the spirit of death. Modern Greeks leaving a funeral will
seldom return directly home, but will stop at a pastry shop to eat and
drink. This seems to be a form of ritual purification similar to the older
one of water sprinkling.