Since I’ll be in Greece over Christmas, I will need to know what is happening. With this in mind, Smaragda and I strayed from our syllabus and focused a week on Christmas in Greece. Many of the traditions are not terribly different from America’s, but with a few notable exceptions. While America can secularize even a religious holiday, Greece acknowledges the secular aspects but overpowers them with religious traditions. To name a few, they bake special breads, cakes, and cookies, which are blessed by Saint Nicholas. The young men swim a race to retrieve a wooden cross that a priest throws into the sea, and the winner and his home are blessed well for the year. Everyone goes to church on the three big days of Christmas (Christmas, New Year’s, and Epiphany), and the focus of the holiday is not lost to commercializing a sentiment, but given to prayer and preparation for the new year. Of course, the feasting is not to be overlooked, but the fervent focus on the religious celebration awes me, especially since I am not Greek Orthodox.
Here is a video of the race for the cross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbpwp_3Aq4c
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