Greek Traditions

Greek traditions are the customs, beliefs and rites that Greek families hand down through the generations. Small-group trips with a host run through the Greek mainland and the islands. The customs here run from the fortieth-day blessing, naming and baptism to the koumbaros and the wedding crowning. The dowry, xenia, the evil eye, funerals, seasonal feasts, worry beads and folk dress follow. Related reading covers Greek Easter traditions, Greek food and Greek mythology places. Further trips sit under Greece tours.

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What are Greek traditions?

Greek traditions are the demotic music, legends and customs that Greek people keep alive. Demotic means belonging to the common people. Together they form Greek folklore, the folk tradition of the Greek people. It grew inside Greece and far beyond it over the centuries.

A tradition is a set of beliefs or behaviours handed down inside a group, rooted in the past. The English word comes from the Latin tradere, which means to transmit or to hand over. Roman law first used the term for legal transfers and for inheritance. Inheritance is the passing of goods to heirs after a death.

At least two handovers across three generations are expected before a practice counts as traditional. In the beginning, traditions passed by word of mouth, with no need for writing. Greek traditions also hold folktales, with titles such as Myrsina, Anthousa, Xanthousa and Chrysomalousa. Aesop’s fables live on in modern Greek folklore in different forms.

Greek folklore joins pre-Christian pagan lore with parts of ancient Greek mythology. Pagan here means the old faiths that came before Christianity. Christian myths and legends that grew up in Roman and medieval times add a further layer. Greek traditions also share elements with Balkan neighbours, such as Albanian and Serbian folklore.

• Neraides: The Nymphs of ancient myth survive in modern Greek folklore as these fairies.
• Lamia: This creature of Greek mythology survives in modern folklore, still carrying old traits.
• Vrykolakas: This legendary figure of Greek folklore resembles the vampire found in Slavic folklore.

Greek traditions, like all traditions, can last and change over thousands of years. Scholars in anthropology, archaeology, history and sociology all study traditions. Anthropology is the study of human societies and their ways. Archaeology studies the past through the objects people left behind.

Why does the fortieth day after a birth matter in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions include a church blessing for a mother on the fortieth day after childbirth. The Church of Greece is a self-governing Greek Orthodox church within the Eastern Orthodox family. A large number of local churches of the Byzantine Rite still keep the custom.

The Byzantine Rite is also called the Rite of Constantinople. It is a form of worship that grew up in the Eastern church of that city. Under these Greek traditions, a new mother rests at home for forty days with her baby. If the child has not survived, she still stays home to heal in body and mind.

During this rest, the mother as a rule skips the eucharist, unless she faces death. The eucharist is the shared bread and wine of worship. In Greek traditions, the service itself blesses the mother and presents the child to God. Two shorter rites come first: prayers on day one and a naming on day eight.

In certain traditions, the baby is baptised on the eighth day instead. On the fortieth day, the mother arrives with the chosen sponsors, or godparents, of the coming baptism. Together they wait in the narthex, the entrance hall, at the doors to the nave, facing east. The nave forms the main space for worship.

• Home rites: The first-day prayers and the eighth-day naming normally take place at home.
• Thanks: The priest gives thanks for the wellbeing of the mother and the child.
• Washing: The mother arrives at church already cleansed and washed for the blessing.

In Greek traditions of this rite, the blessing ends with the child. The priest carries the baby through the church and behind the altar before coming out again. He then marks the child’s forehead, mouth and heart with the sign of the cross.

How do Greek traditions decide what a newborn is called?

Greek traditions name a newborn after a grandparent, a habit that goes back to antiquity. The first and second sons carry the names of the paternal and maternal grandfathers. Paternal means from the father, and maternal means from the mother.

The first and second daughters follow the same order with their two grandmothers. Cities in modern Greece partly challenge the custom, yet much of the country still keeps it. Cousins can therefore carry the same official name. To tell them apart, relatives almost always call each cousin by a different shortened form or diminutive.

A diminutive is a fond, smaller form made by adding an ending to a name. For boys, Greek traditions add endings such as -akis or -oulis. Girls’ names take endings such as -itsa, -oula or -io. These diminutives have shortened forms of their own. Takis, for example, can stand for Kostakis or Panagiotakis, from Konstantinos and Panagiotis.

In Greek traditions, first names cluster by place, following patron saints, famous churches or monasteries. Local people trust their patron saint to watch over one town or island. Spyridon and Spyridoula are common local names in Corfu. Gerasimos and Gerasimoula cluster in Kefalonia, and Dionysios and Dionysia in Zakynthos.

• Ancient names: As a rule, ancient Greeks carried a single name, at times with a father’s name added.
• Saints’ names: Up to the late 18th century, nearly every Christian Greek bore the name of an Orthodox saint.
• Married names: In early modern Greek society, a wife was named with -aina on her husband’s name, as in Giorgaina.

Greek traditions for a married woman’s surname have changed, and today it stays the same after marriage. She can still use her husband’s surname in social life. Children normally take the father’s surname, but certain children take the mother’s as well or instead.

What happens at a baptism under Greek traditions?

Greek traditions of baptism follow the Orthodox Church, which Greek constitutions establish as the prevailing religion of Greece. Prevailing here means the main faith, the one that the national law names. The Eastern Orthodox Church baptises babies soon after they are born.

The word baptism comes from the Koine Greek baptisma, meaning immersion or dipping in water. Koine Greek was the shared everyday Greek of the ancient world. In Greek traditions, the baby goes fully into the water three times. The dips are made in turn for Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The baptismal clothes go on right after the baby comes up out of the water. In Orthodox teaching, the robe recalls the garments of light worn by Adam and Eve in Eden. The newly baptised traditionally wear these clothes for eight days. Today, a large number of places remove the robe on the baptism day itself.

Under Greek traditions of the Orthodox Church, baptism leads straight into chrismation and then Holy Communion. Chrismation is an anointing with Holy Myron, a blessed oil also called chrism. The priest marks the brow, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, chest, hands and feet with it. Babies then take blessed bread and wine as their first communion.

• White robe: For a baby, the robe can be a white gown and bonnet with a white blanket.
• Washing: At an infant baptism, the chrism is washed off right after the anointing.
• Membership: Through baptism, the child becomes a full member of the Orthodox Church.

Greek traditions mark the eight days after baptism as special days of prayer and fasting. At their end, the newly baptised return to church so that the robe can come off. During this short rite, the priest loosens the belt of the baptismal robe.

Who is the koumbaros in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions name the religious sponsor at an Orthodox wedding in Greece the koumbaros. In a large share of Greek weddings, the best man also fills this role. A woman who takes the same part in the ceremony is called the koumbara.

Under Greek traditions, the koumbaros crowns the couple at the ceremony. This sponsor also joins the pair in circling the altar three times. At times, the same person pays for the larger part of the wedding costs. Weddings in the Eastern Orthodox tradition include such a sponsor, known in Greek as a koumbaro.

Greek traditions link the wedding role and the baptism role. The wedding sponsor normally acts as godparent to the couple’s first child, or to all their children. A godparent is a sponsor who bears witness at a child’s baptism. A man in this role is a godfather, a woman a godmother, and the child a godchild.

In certain Greek traditions, the godfather is the one who names the child. Years later, the godparent acts as sponsor at the godchild’s own wedding. The church expects godparents to stay in good standing, including on its rulings about divorce. Good standing means being a member who follows the church’s rules.

• Choice: Parents pick a godparent to follow the child’s growth and act as a mentor.
• Name day: On a child’s name day, the feast of its saint, a godparent can give pocket money.
• Stability: Orthodox godparenthood has changed less than the custom in other major Christian traditions.

Before the sixth century closed, Christians saw sponsors as spiritual co-parents. They called them compaters and commaters, Latin words for co-fathers and co-mothers. In 530, a decree of the emperor Justinian forbade a godfather to marry his goddaughter.

Which steps make up an Orthodox wedding in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions hold that the crowning, not the swap of rings, is the true symbolic act of marriage. The Greek Orthodox church conducts the large majority of religious weddings in Greece. Crowning means that both the bride and the groom receive a crown on the head.

Couples can pick a civil wedding, a religious one, or both, and each is legally binding. A civil wedding is performed by the mayor. In the Byzantine Rite, the church’s set order of worship, the couple is crowned. The rite falls into two stages, first the betrothal, or engagement, then the crowning itself.

In Greek traditions today, the betrothal opens the wedding service instead of standing alone. During it, the priest blesses the groom and the bride three times each. The rings, always a set of two, come from the priest or the best man. Each ring goes on the right hand, on the ring finger.

In Greek traditions, the bride and groom each receive a candle at the crowning stage. If the bride wears a veil, her crown simply rests on top of it. The couple then swap the crowns three times. Later they drink from one shared cup three times each. Traditional practice uses wine, though certain couples choose grape juice.

• Hands: After more prayers, the priest joins the right hands of the bride and groom.
• Readings: The service holds two readings from the New Testament, the Christian scriptures.
• Procession: Holding the Book of the Gospels, the priest leads the couple three times around the table.

Greek traditions end the service when the priest lifts the crowns from the couple. He then tells the newlyweds to go forth in peace. Earlier, at the betrothal, the priest recites Psalm 128, a song from the Book of Psalms.

How did the dowry shape Greek traditions of marriage?

Greek traditions of marriage long included the dowry, also called a marriage portion. It was wealth, such as land, money or livestock, paid by the bride’s family to the groom’s side. The groom or his family received it at the time of the marriage.

In archaic Greece, the age before the classical era, families gave a bride price, called hednon. A bride price is a payment from the groom or his family to the bride’s side. By the later classical period, the fifth century BC, dowries called pherne were exchanged. The husband gained certain rights over the property in that dowry.

Under Greek traditions, a bride was also free to bring her own goods, and these stayed hers alone. Greek traditions called this property parapherna, meaning beyond the dowry. The word is the root of the English paraphernalia. A dowry also gave a wife protection against harsh treatment by her husband and his family.

In 1983, a new family law set out equality between women and men in marriage. The same law gave rights to children born outside marriage. It also provided for civil marriage and made divorce law less strict. Civil marriage is a wedding held by a state official instead of a priest.

• Marriage today: Marriage remains the main form of partnership in Greek family life today.
• Births: In 2015, Greece had the smallest share of children born outside marriage in the European Union.
• Living together: Long-term living together without marriage is not widespread in Greece.

Greek traditions lost the dowry as a legal custom in 1983, when reforms removed it from family law. Dowry also differs from dower, which is property a groom settles on the bride herself. A dower remains under the bride’s own ownership and control.

What did xenia, the ancient code of hospitality, give to Greek traditions?

Greek traditions of welcome trace back to xenia, an ancient Greek concept of hospitality. Hospitality means a warm welcome for guests and strangers. Under xenia, hosts had to be hospitable to guests. Guests, in turn, had to be courteous and never become a threat or burden.

In Greek traditions of xenia, a guest owed the host stories and news of the wider world. Above all, a guest had to return the favour if the host ever came to visit. The rituals gave material benefits such as gifts, protection and shelter. They also gave non-material ones, such as favours and certain rights.

The special gifts that sealed such bonds were called xénia, unlike xenía, the word for the bond itself. Under the same Greek traditions, refusing to give a gift back counted as a declaration of hostility. The return gift had to come at once, matching the first in value rather than beating it.

The Roman architect Vitruvius described how xenia shaped the layout and decoration of Greek homes. As Greeks grew richer, they built dining rooms, chambers and storerooms for guests from abroad. Hosts invited such guests to dinner on the first day. The next day, they sent chickens, eggs, vegetables, fruit and other country produce.

• Paintings: Artists called pictures of the food sent to guests xenia.
• Trojan War: In Homer’s Iliad, the war against Troy began from a breach of xenia.
• Diomedes and Glaucus: These Iliad warriors refused to fight and traded armour as hereditary guest-friends.

Paris of Troy was a guest of Menelaus, king of Sparta, yet carried off his host’s wife, Helen. The Achaeans, the Greek side, owed Zeus a duty to punish this wrong. In Greek traditions, breaking xenia insulted the authority of Zeus.

How do Greek traditions deal with the evil eye?

Greek traditions call the evil eye kako mati, or simply mati, the Greek word for eye. The belief says that a hostile glare, as a rule inspired by envy, can bring a curse. A healer lifts it through xematiasma, a ritual of silent, secret prayer.

The healer receives the secret prayer from an older family member of the opposite sex, normally a grandparent. Under Greek traditions, anyone who shares these prayers carelessly loses the power to lift the evil eye. If the evil eye is truly present, both the victim and the healer begin to yawn heavily.

Greek traditions also use an oil test, as olive oil is less dense than water. The healer lets one drop of olive oil fall into a glass of water. A floating drop means no evil eye, while a sinking drop means it is present. Another form sets three or nine drops on a plate of water.

In the clove test, the healer holds a clove pierced with a pin over a candle flame. A clove that bursts or burns loudly names the person in the sufferer’s mind as the cause. In Greek traditions, the spent cloves and pins later go into the garden soil. The pins and cloves count as contaminated, or tainted.

• Spoken charm: Greeks ward off the evil eye by saying a phrase about spitting so as not to cast it.
• Admiration: The evil eye need not come from ill will, since it stems from admiration.
• Humility: A person can give themselves the evil eye, so humility is the advice.

The Greek church fathers, early Christian teachers, saw envy as a serious illness of the spirit. They rejected the idea that an evil eye harms people from a distance. John Chrysostom took the evil eye to mean, above all, jealousy or envy.

Which funeral steps have Greek traditions kept since Homer’s time?

Greek traditions still follow the three stages of the ancient Greek funeral, known since the Homeric era. These are the prothesis, the ekphora and the perideipnon, three Greek words for set steps. In the large majority of cases, Greece follows this process faithfully today.

The Greek word for funeral is kedeia. It comes from kedomai, a verb meaning to take care of someone. Prothesis is the laying out of the body, while relatives sing a lament. A lament is a song of grief. Today the body lies in a casket, which is always open at Greek funerals.

Loved ones watch over the deceased through the whole night before the burial. Greek traditions keep this night watch as a duty to this day. Ekphora is the carrying of the body from home to church and then to the grave. In certain regions, families placed coins inside the casket to pay Charon, ferryman of the dead.

The family gives the dead a last kiss before the coffin is closed. Planting flowers around the tomb, a habit noted by the Roman orator Cicero, continues today. After the service, mourners return to the house for the perideipnon, the burial meal. In Greek traditions of Epirus and Mani, older women sing laments called miroloyia without music.

• Church service: Greek funerals are held in churches as a rule, with a Trisagion, or thrice-holy, service.
• Cremation: The burning of the dead appeared in Greece around the 11th century BCE.
• Christian era: With Christianity, burial in the ground became the only allowed practice again.

Ancient Greek traditions also set aside yearly feasts to honour the dead. Nekysia meant the day of the dead. Genesia meant the day of the forefathers, or the ancestors. Nemesia, a third annual feast, also honoured those who had died.

What role does the memorial service play in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions mark a death with the memorial service, from the Ancient Greek mnemosynon, meaning memorial. It is a solemn service for the repose, or rest, of the departed. In Greece, a 40-day mourning period normally ends with such a service.

The prayers ask for rest for the departed and bring comfort to the living. They also remind the living that their own lives will end. Under Greek traditions, a service for a single person frequently takes place at the graveside. Otherwise, it is held in church before a small memorial table with a crucifix and candlesticks.

In Greek traditions of this service, all present stand holding lighted candles. Each candle stands for the soul of one person. Near the end of the service, people put out their candles or set them in a holder. This act shows that each person will give up the soul when life ends.

In outline, the service follows the order of Matins, the early morning prayer service. In effect, it is a shortened funeral service. It closes with the singing of Memory Eternal, a short hymn for the dead. Memorial services are not allowed from Holy Thursday through Bright Week, the week after Easter, or on Sundays.

• Black clothes: During mourning, Greek women wear black clothes and men wear a black armband.
• Widows: In Greece, it is not rare for a widow to wear mourning dress until her death.
• Unshaven: Certain men in mourning leave their beards unshaved for the forty days.

Greek traditions keep an old graveside gathering called the ninths. Eight days after a burial, relatives and friends meet at the grave for it. Memorial services also take place more frequently during the four fasting seasons of the church year.

How does the Nativity Fast shape Greek traditions before Christmas?

Greek traditions of Christmas begin with the Nativity Fast, a season of self-denial. It prepares for the birth of Jesus on 25 December. In the Eastern churches this fast runs for 40 days. The Roman Rite keeps a shorter season of four weeks.

The season also carries the name Philip’s Fast. It starts on the day after the feast of St Philip, held on 14 November. Among Greek traditions of faith, fasting goes together with prayer, repentance and almsgiving. Almsgiving means giving to the poor. Orthodox teaching holds that mastering the hunger for food helps a person master other passions.

The fast rules out dairy products, eggs, poultry and red meat. Fish, oil and wine are left out as well. Even so, fish, wine and oil return to the table on Saturdays and Sundays. Named feast days also ease the rule. Both St Andrew on 30 November and St Nicholas on 6 December permit fish.

Within Greek traditions, this fast ranks as gentler than Great Lent or the Dormition Fast. Dormition, a church term, names the Virgin Mary’s passing, seen as a falling asleep. Certain people are freed from the rules: the sick, the very young, the elderly and nursing mothers. Shellfish can be eaten even on days that forbid fish.

• No fish: From 20 to 24 December, the rules forbid fish on every day.
• Paramony: Christmas Eve, named Paramony or preparation, brings a strict fast day.
• Sirius: On that eve, no solid food is eaten until the star Sirius shows at dusk.

In Greek traditions of worship, the Forefeast, or run-up to the feast, opens on 20 December. Hymns of the Nativity are sung on each of those days. Two Sundays before Christmas, the Church honours the forefathers, the ancestors of the faith.

Which sea legends tie Saint Nicholas to Greek traditions?

Greek traditions of the sea honour Saint Nicholas, an early Church bishop with Greek roots. Among Greeks and Italians, he is the favourite saint of sailors, fishermen, ships and sailing. In modern Greece he still ranks among the best-known saints.

For centuries, Greek traditions and folklore called Nicholas the Lord of the Sea. Modern Greek scholars describe him as a Christian form of Poseidon. Poseidon was the ancient Greek god of the sea. He became the patron saint of harbour cities as well. Believers see such a saint as the heavenly protector of a town.

Nicholas is said to have travelled to the Holy Land. On the voyage a fierce storm almost destroyed his ship. He rebuked the waves, and the storm calmed. After this story, Christians honoured him as patron saint of sailors and travellers. In another tale, he asked sailors on a grain ship to unload wheat for the needy.

In Greek traditions, his feast falls on 6 December. On that day a large number of Greek cities celebrate him as their patron saint. Greece’s sea force, the Hellenic Navy, also honours him as its own protector saint. The Orthodox Church remembers him on nearly all Thursdays of the year, alongside the Apostles.

• Hymns: His special Thursday hymns appear in the Octoechos, a book used in church services.
• Icons: His icon, or holy image, hangs in a large number of Orthodox churches not named after him.
• Gifts: He was known for secret gifts, such as coins left in shoes set out for him.

Greek traditions also keep a summer date for him. The Orthodox calendar marks his birth, the Nativity of Saint Nicholas, on 29 July. In 1087, Bari merchants from Italy carried his major bones from Myra to their home town.

Who are the kallikantzaroi of Greek traditions, and how are they kept away?

Greek traditions of the Christmas season include the kallikantzaroi, mischief-making goblins of folk belief. Their name joins kalos, the Greek word for good, and kantzaros. Kantzaros possibly comes from kentauros, or centaur, a creature half man and half horse.

One view links them to the satyrs and sileni, the woodland followers of Dionysos, god of wine. In the folk tale, Christmas dawns as the final part of their tree trunk is about to fall. The goblins then climb out, slide down chimneys, spoil the milk and devour the Christmas pork.

On the Epiphany, a church feast in January, the sun starts moving again. The goblins must go back below ground. There they find that the world tree has healed itself. The commonest picture in Greek traditions shows ugly goblins with horns and long black tails. Local names differ, such as skalikantzaros on Zakynthos and kalkantzaros on Lesbos.

Greek traditions on Chios once used a sieve, a kitchen strainer full of holes. The goblin began counting the holes but was unable to say three, a holy number. It had to begin again from one. In Samos, dessert goes out on New Year’s Eve to calm the spirits.

• Fire: A hearth fire kept burning all night stops the goblins from entering by the chimney.
• Yule log: Certain households burned a Yule log, called skakantzalos, through the twelve days.
• Black cross: On Christmas Eve, people marked their door with a black cross to keep goblins out.

In Greek traditions, salt and old shoes are thrown into the fire to drive the goblins off. In Cyprus, pancakes are scattered over rooftops on the final day of the season, as the goblins depart. Folk belief holds that pork is their favourite food.

How does Saint Basil bring gifts into Greek traditions of the New Year?

Greek traditions give the role of gift-bringer to Saint Basil, who brings presents to children every 1 January. That date is known as St Basil’s Day. Basil was born around 330 into a wealthy Greek family in Caesarea, Cappadocia.

On his feast day, Greek traditions call for visits to friends and relatives at home. People also sing New Year’s carols, or festive songs of the season. Households lay an additional table setting for the saint himself. According to certain sources, Basil died on 1 January, the day of his feast.

Though born rich, he gave away his possessions to the poor and to children. During a famine that followed a drought, he ran a soup kitchen. Outside Caesarea, he built a complex called the Basiliad, with a poorhouse, a hospice and a hospital. It ranks among the earliest Christian hospitals for the poor.

Basil, his brother Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Gregory of Nazianzus form the Cappadocian Fathers. He is also one of the four Great Greek Church Fathers, the leading early teachers of the faith. Greek traditions of worship regard him as the main builder of monastic life. Monastic life is the shared life of monks and nuns.

• Feast: The Orthodox Church keeps his feast on 1 January, together with the Feast of the Circumcision.
• Liturgy: Saint Basil’s Divine Liturgy, a main church service, runs a little longer than that of John Chrysostom.
• Three saints: On 30 January, the Byzantine Rite honours Basil with Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.

Within Greek traditions, Basil’s rules for monks stress community life, church prayer and manual work. Emperor Valens once came to Basil’s service on Theophany, a January feast honouring the baptism of Jesus. Deeply impressed, the emperor gave Basil land for building the Basiliad.

What water rites does the Theophany add to Greek traditions in January?

Greek traditions in January include the Theophany, also called the Day of the Lights. On this feast, Eastern Christians recall how Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan. In Greece it also goes by the names Great Celebration and Theotromi.

The Phota, or Lights, form the middle of a three-day feast. Epiphany Eve comes first, and children sing the Epiphany carols that evening. The feast of St John the Baptist follows on 7 January. In Greece, the sanctification of this season means cleansing people and guarding them against the power of demons.

The Great Blessing of the Waters happens twice. The first comes on the eve, at the baptism font in the church. In Greek traditions, the feast-day blessing uses a decorated platform holding a large vessel of water. The first swimmer to reach the cross hands it back and wins a blessing for the household.

Greek traditions hold that dipping the cross gives the water power to cleanse and heal. Icons, or holy pictures, are thought to lose their strength as the years pass. They regain it from the blessed water. The faithful carry this holy water home, sprinkle their houses with it and also drink it.

• Bonfires: In certain places, bonfires are lit to drive away the goblins of the season.
• Baptisms: Theophany is a traditional day for baptisms, the rite of entry into the Church.
• Afterfeast: Eight days of feasting follow, and the normal fasting laws are lifted.

In Greek traditions, the Forefeast runs from 2 January to the Paramony, or eve, on 5 January. A forefeast is a short lead-in season before a great feast. On the Paramony, the faithful who are able eat nothing until the first star appears.

Which carnival customs of Apokries belong to Greek traditions before Lent?

Greek traditions call the carnival season Apokries, a name meaning a farewell to meat. It officially opens with the Opening of the Triodion. This church book stays in Orthodox use from then until Holy Week, the week before Easter.

In Greek traditions, Apokries has three themed weeks. The first is Prophoni, the preannouncement week. Kreatini, the meat week, follows, and it holds one of the high points of the season. The third week is Tirini, the cheese week, with feasts built around cheese, eggs and dairy. It ends with Cheese Sunday.

After the Sunday that follows Tsiknopempti, or Smoky Thursday, meat is off the table until Easter. Great Lent, with its strict fasting rules, starts in earnest on Clean Monday. Across the country, the season brings festivals, parades and balls. People dress up as maskarades, or masqueraders, and play pranks throughout the carnival weeks.

Greek traditions in Patras include the Bourboulia ball. There, women hide who they are under a robe-like costume known as a domino. Corfu’s carnival presents theatre sketches called Petegolia or Petegoletsa in the local dialect. Dialect here means the island’s home speech. In earlier centuries, Corfu also kept the custom of Giostra, or jousting.

• Smaller towns: Tyrnavos, Kozani and Rethymno re-create old carnival customs on a smaller scale.
• Xanthi: The Xanthi Carnival draws visitors from nearby Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania.
• Istanbul: Greek Orthodox communities in Istanbul kept Carnival with parades and balls for almost five centuries.

In Istanbul, Greek traditions of carnival ended with Baklahorani on Clean Monday, the last day of the season. The Greek Orthodox community led the event, but the public celebrations welcomed every community. The festival came back to life in 2010.

What does Great Lent ask of the faithful in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions name this fast Megali Tessarakosti, meaning the Great 40 Days. It ranks as the leading fasting season of the church year in Eastern Christianity. Unlike Western Lent, it counts Sundays within the forty days but leaves out Holy Week.

Great Lent begins seven weeks before Pascha, the Greek church name for Easter. Eastern Christians do not keep Ash Wednesday, the day that opens Lent in the West. Moses, Elijah and Jesus each fasted for 40 days and nights before their work. The church season of Lent was built on this biblical example.

Under Greek traditions of fasting, meat and dairy stay off the table until Easter Sunday. Wine and oil are allowed on Saturdays, Sundays and certain feast days. Fish is permitted on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. Caviar, the salted eggs of fish, is permitted on Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday.

The Akathist is a hymn to the Virgin Mary. In Greek traditions, a quarter of it is sung on each of the first four Friday nights. On the fifth Saturday, the whole Akathist is sung at Matins, the morning service. Each weekday service includes the Prayer of Saint Ephrem, said with full bows to the ground.

• Annunciation: The Annunciation, the angel’s message to Mary, falls on 25 March and is never moved.
• Patron saints: If a parish church’s patron saint has a feast on a Lenten weekday, fish is allowed.
• Lenten joy: Hymns of the Triodion speak of joy, such as one that begins “The Lenten Spring has dawned!”

Before the fast, Greek traditions keep a three-week Pre-Lenten season. During its Cheesefare Week, dairy foods are allowed every day, even on Wednesday and Friday. Those two days are fast days for the rest of the year. Meat is no longer eaten that week.

How do flower wreaths mark Protomagia in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions treat Protomagia, day one of the fifth month, as summer’s final win over winter. The day also stands for the victory of life over death. Its commonest modern custom is a wreath woven from wild flowers and green leaves.

The month’s name, Maios, came from Maia, a Roman goddess of the earth. The feast resembles an old rite for the half-god Adonis, which also honoured nature’s revival. Today it is partly blended with a second story, the revival or marriage of Dionysus. In myth, Dionysus ruled over wine-making and the theatre.

Greek traditions once staged a simple play at this feast. A youth stood for Adonis, Dionysus or Maios, also called Maiopoulo, the Son of Maia. He lay on the ground while a chorus of young girls sang over him. When the song ended, he rose, and a flower wreath was set on his head.

In Greek traditions the wreath stays on the door or balcony until midsummer night. That night, the wreaths are burned on Saint John’s fires, the midsummer bonfires. Young people leap over the flames as the flowers burn. City life has led more people to buy their wreaths from flower shops.

• Morning dew: In parts of the country, people wash their faces in the morning dew for good health.
• Green branches: Gates are decked with green branches for luck and plenty, and so are animal shelters.
• Harvest fire: The branches stay until the wheat harvest, then feed the fire for the first new bread.

In Greek traditions, the wreath bonfires have practically disappeared. Rising urban traffic is one cause. Another is the lack of open public ground across a large share of Greek city neighbourhoods. The yearly play that revived Adonis, Dionysus or Maios has faded away as well.

Where do the kourbania feasts fit among Greek traditions of village saints?

Greek traditions in parts of the country include the kourbania, a Christian animal sacrifice to saints. Lambs are the usual offering. The word comes from the Turkish kurban, which goes back to the Arabic qurban, meaning a sacrificial rite.

The animal is offered to the village’s patron saint, or to the Holy Trinity or the Virgin Mary. The offering takes place outside the village church. It comes during or after the Liturgy, or on the feast’s eve. At times, the animal is first brought inside the church to stand before the saint’s icon.

In ancient times, such an offering was made for health, or after an accident or illness. The community or the sufferer’s relatives promised it as a vow. Under Greek traditions, the bulk of the kourbania fall between April and October. In Mistegna on Lesbos, the rite honours the Akindinoi saints on a Sunday after Easter.

In Mega Monastiri, a village of northeastern Thrace, the people bought the strongest calves. They raised them only for the kourbania and never used them for farm work. At times, the animal was bathed and decked with flowers or ribbons. Its horns bore strips of gold foil as it was led through the streets in joyful procession.

• Feast: A festival follows, with food made under a church officer’s eye and blessed by the priest.
• Mega Monastiri: Each clan, or family line, sat at a stone table of its own in the churchyard.
• Old prayers: In Greek traditions, the priest’s prayers over the animal date back to at least the 8th century.

Greek traditions in Mega Monastiri made the eastern end of each table the place of honour. That seat went to the clan’s eldest member. Writing in 1979, Stella Georgoudi said the custom survived in certain villages. She added that it was slowly dying out.

Which September rites does the Feast of the Cross bring to Greek traditions?

Greek traditions keep 14 September as the Feast of the Cross, honouring the True Cross. That is the cross on which, by Christian belief, Jesus died. In Byzantine practice it ranks as one of the church’s Twelve Great Feasts.

Christian tradition holds that Saint Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, found the True Cross in 326. She made the discovery on a pilgrimage, or holy journey, to Jerusalem. On her and Constantine’s orders, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or tomb, rose on the site. The feast recalls how Emperor Heraclius recovered the Cross in 628.

In Greek traditions, the priest prepares a tray on the eve of the feast. He sets the cross on fresh basil leaves or flowers spread across it. A cloth called an aer, or liturgical veil, covers the cross. He carries the tray on his head, behind lighted candles. The deacon, his assistant, burns incense before the cross.

At matins, the morning service, the cross is carried out and lifted up in the exaltation ceremony. In Greek traditions, the day of the feast is always a fast day. Meat, dairy products and fish are all forbidden. A one-day forefeast comes before it, and an eight-day afterfeast follows.

• Old calendar: On the old Julian calendar, still used by certain churches, the feast falls on 27 September.
• Readings: The Saturday and Sunday on each side of 14 September carry special readings about the Cross.
• Constantinople: The city carried its holy relic of the Cross through the streets, asking relief from sickness.

Greek traditions also recall how the True Cross was lifted up in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. Heraclius raised it there in 629, after the Persians had taken it in 614. Pieces of the True Cross were shared across the empire and honoured as far as Italy.

How is the prosphora loaf baked and shared within Greek traditions?

Greek traditions of worship use the prosphora, a small loaf of leavened bread offered at the Orthodox Liturgy. Its name means offering. Leavened bread is dough that rises with yeast. Once, the term meant any gift made to a temple.

Only four ingredients go into the loaf: wheat flour, yeast, salt and water. Salt was absent in early times and is still left out in Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox Church. In Greek traditions, the women of a parish church take turns baking. In monasteries, the abbot or abbess hands the task to monks or nuns of virtuous life.

Greek traditions of baking start in the morning, while the baker is still fasting. The baker keeps a prayerful mind and says the Jesus Prayer, a brief plea for mercy. Each loaf joins two round pieces of dough, one set on the other. The double loaf stands for Christ’s two natures, human and divine.

Before baking, each loaf is pressed with a seal called the sphragis. The seal shows a cross with IC XC NIKA, Greek letters meaning Jesus Christ conquers. The Greek practice uses one large loaf, showing that all who share the Bread are one. Slavic churches use five smaller loaves, recalling the five loaves that fed the crowds.

• The Lamb: A cube cut from the centre, called the Lamb or Amnos, is blessed for Communion.
• Antidoron: The rest of the loaf becomes antidoron, blessed bread handed out when the Liturgy ends.
• Names: Church members bring smaller loaves with a list of living and departed people to remember.

In Greek traditions, the loaf that honours the Virgin Mary is called Panagia. During the Liturgy, it receives a solemn blessing in her honour. Before cutting it, the priest signs the cross over it three times. He uses the liturgical spear, a small church knife.

What role does the komboloi play in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions call a string of worry beads the komboloi, meaning ‘bead collection’. Its beads are worked with one or two hands. The name grew out of komboskini, the Greek word for a prayer rope. A prayer rope is a knotted cord for counting prayers.

In Greek traditions, a komboloi commonly holds one bead more than a multiple of four. At the head sits a fixed bead called the papas, meaning ‘priest’. Beside it, a shield keeps the two threads apart and lets the beads run freely. A tassel, a tuft of loose threads called founta, finishes the head.

Greek traditions favour amber, amber resin and coral for the beads. Faturan is one kind of amber resin used this way. These organic materials are thought to feel more pleasant in the hand than metal or minerals. Organic here means the material comes from living things. A finished komboloi spans about two palm widths.

Greek traditions know two main ways to handle worry beads. A quiet method suits indoor rooms, and a louder one is accepted in public places. For the quiet way, the thumb and side of the index finger draw the thread to a bead. The cord is then tipped, so the bead drops and strikes the shield.

• Loud way: The beads split into two groups, and one end swings up to strike the rest.
• Rolling: Holding the whole string in one hand and rolling the beads makes soft clicking sounds.
• Collectors: Andreas Papandreou, a former prime minister, and business magnate Aristotle Onassis both collected worry beads.

Greek traditions also keep a popular account of the name komboloi. It reads the word as a short form of a phrase about saying one prayer at every knot. With the quiet method, the user starts again once every bead has dropped.

Who were the manges of Athens and Piraeus in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions remember the manges as a Belle Époque counterculture group, chiefly in Athens and Piraeus. The singular form is mangas. Belle Époque is a French name for the years before the First World War. A counterculture is a group that rejects mainstream ways.

In Greek traditions, mangas was a label for working-class men who behaved in an arrogant way. Their dress began with a woollen hat called the kavouraki. They wore a jacket, commonly with only one sleeve on. A tight belt doubled as a knife case, worn with striped trousers and pointed shoes.

Greek traditions also link the manges with a long moustache, a komboloi and a mannered, limping walk. A related group were the koutsavakides, and the two names are at times used interchangeably. The nearest English words are wide boy and spiv. A spiv is a flashy man living by petty dealing.

Greek traditions give three probable roots for the word mangas. One is the Turkish manga, a small military troop, carried over through the Albanian mangë. Another is the Latin manica, meaning hand-related, which shares a root with the modern Greek maniki, sleeve. A fringe view traces it to the Latin mango, a dealer or trader.

• Rebetiko: Manges are closely tied to the history of rebetiko, a Greek urban song form.
• Early song: ‘In the Basement’, a 1930 song by Kostis, refers to the manges.
• Shadow play: Karagiozis, a Greek shadow puppet theatre, features a recurring mangas character called Stavrakas.

Greek traditions hold that rebetiko was itself part of the manges’ subculture. The great majority of rebetiko songs refer to manges, even when they do not say so openly. Kasimatis is credited with ‘The Mangas of Votanikos’, a song from 1934.

How did the begleri grow out of Greek traditions?

Greek traditions gave rise to the begleri, a small skill toy. It has beads at either end of a short string or chain. A skill toy is a plaything that rewards practice. Its owner flips and twirls it around the fingers to perform tricks.

In Greek traditions, both the name and the habit of the begleri come from the komboloi. That string of worry beads is itself flipped and swung to keep the hands busy. A komboloi has its beads on a closed loop. The modern begleri threads them on an open strand, weighted equally at both ends.

Rebetiko songs from between the world wars record the word begleri within Greek traditions. In those songs, begleria, the plural form, sit beside knives as symbols of the mangas world. Panagiotis Toundas used the word in ‘Lili the mischievous’ in 1931. Anestis Delias did the same in ‘The jacket’ in 1935.

The rebetiko researcher Panos Savvopoulos notes that the manges rarely used the word komboloi. They called their worry beads begleri instead. Early Greek traditions gave the word to a closed strand. That begleri held around sixteen beads on a cord longer than the beads. It was spun around the hand and clacked.

• Later form: A single bead at each end of an untied string came later, among younger players.
• Materials: Begleria come in a wide range of forms, with beads of semi-precious stone or metal.
• Kashaka: A begleri resembles the kashaka, a percussion instrument, but is much smaller.

Outside Greece, the begleri has grown popular as a skill toy and a pocket item carried every day. Collector interest goes back at least to the early 2010s, on hobbyist sites. Players have moved from the ornate beads of Greek traditions to simpler, durable ones.

Which rules make Plakoto stand out in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions count Plakoto as a tables game for two players, popular in Greece. A tables game is a dice race played on a board of points. In Plakoto, the two sides move their pieces in opposite directions around the board.

In Greek traditions of Plakoto, each player owns fifteen pieces. One side stacks them on the ace-point, while the other starts on the 24 point. The ace-point is the first point, or narrow triangle, of the board. To begin, each player rolls one die, and the higher roll moves first after rolling again.

Under Greek traditions of play, a Plakoto piece moves only to an open point. An open point is one not held by two or more opposing pieces. The numbers on the two dice count as separate moves. With 4 and 2 rolled, one piece can travel six spaces if the middle point is open.

Doublets, where both dice match, are played twice in Greek traditions of Plakoto. A roll of 3-3 therefore lets the player use the three four times. Knocking a lone rival piece off the board, called hitting, is not allowed. Two pieces on one point form an anchor, a blocked point where the opponent cannot land.

• Mother piece: If a player’s last piece on the start is pinned before leaving, the game is lost double.
• Bearing off: Removing pieces from the board starts only once all fifteen have reached the home board.
• Relatives: David Parlett groups Plakoto with the medieval game English and the French game Tieste.

In Greek traditions of Plakoto, a loser who has borne off at least one piece drops one point. A loser with no pieces off drops two points. A close version called Tapa, meaning bottle cap, is played in Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

Where does the card game Bastra fit in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions include Bastra, a fishing card game popular in Cyprus. It resembles cassino, another card game. A fishing game is one where players capture cards from the table. The game started in Greece and appears in versions such as diloti and kseri.

Beyond Greek traditions, Bastra is also popular in Egypt, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. Its name is a Greek borrowing from the Arabic word Basra. A borrowing is a word taken over from another language. The Turkish games pişti and pişpirik grew out of Bastra, and the game stays very popular in Turkey.

Cypriot and Turkish emigrants carried this strand of Greek traditions abroad. Cypriot communities play Bastra in Australia, Canada, England and the United States. First-generation immigrants pass it on to their children and grandchildren. The game uses a 52-card deck for two, three or four players. In the four-player version, players play alone or in teams of two.

Greek traditions of Bastra start with the dealer giving each player four cards, one at a time. Four more cards go in the middle, a spread called the board. Any jack among them goes back under the deck and is replaced. Players then fish cards from the board, or add a card when they cannot fish.

• Clubs and diamonds: The two of clubs earns 2 points, and the ten of diamonds earns 3.
• Card count: The player or team that collects the greatest number of cards in a hand gains 3 points.
• Bastra: Sweeping every card off the board without the help of a jack scores 10 points.

Greek traditions of Bastra crown the first player or team to reach 100 points. Pairing lets any card take cards of the same value, so a king takes a king. Combining adds values, so a 9 takes a 5 and a 4 together.

What did the Amalia dress give to Greek traditions?

Greek traditions owe the Amalia dress to Amalia, who created a romantic, folksy court dress. It became a national Greek costume that still carries her name. In independent Greece, Otto and Amalia were the first to take an interest in fashion.

In Greek traditions, the Amalia dress follows the Biedermeier style. Biedermeier is a simple, homely European style. Its loose white shirt of cotton or silk frequently carries lace at the neck and cuffs. Over the shirt goes a richly embroidered jacket or vest. That layer is commonly dark blue or claret velvet; claret is deep red.

The ankle-length skirt is unpressed, pleated silk, commonly azure, a sky blue. Married women in Greek traditions added a soft cap or fez with one long golden silk tassel. A fez is a flat-topped, brimless cap. Unmarried women wore the kalpaki, a small brimless hat called a toque. A black veil was sometimes added for church.

Through Greek traditions, the Amalia dress became the usual attire of Christian townswomen in Balkan lands. It reached both Ottoman-held and freed territories, as far north as Belgrade. Théodore Jacques Ralli, a nineteenth-century Greek painter, showed such attire in works from 1873 to 1909. Women in this dress commonly wore the Greek mandili, a headscarf.

• Island breeches: From the Ionian Islands to Cyprus, islanders once wore the vraka, a kind of traditional breeches.
• Town fashion: Wealthy Greeks of the urban centres adopted Western European dress during Ottoman rule.
• Cretan look: A common image shows mountain Cretans in black, with stivania boots and a woven sariki headscarf.

Ancient Greek traditions of dress centred on the chiton, peplos, himation and chlamys. These were chiefly rectangular lengths of linen or wool. Men’s robes reached the knees, while women’s robes reached the ankles. Despite modern images of all-white clothing, bright colours and elaborate designs were favoured.

Why is the tsarouchi shoe still worn in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions keep the tsarouchi, a shoe whose name comes from the Turkish word çarık. Today it is best known as part of the traditional uniform of the Evzones. The Evzones are the soldiers of the Greek Presidential Guard.

The origin of this shoe in Greek traditions is unclear, but it goes back to Byzantine times. Styles brought in by neighbouring peoples, including the Turks, shaped its form. Similar shoes were worn across the Balkans, yet tsarouchia are tied chiefly to the Greeks. The plural, tsarouchia, refers to two or more shoes.

In Greek traditions, tsarouchia were the commonest footwear of Greeks in towns and villages. Men wore them chiefly, but women did too. After independence in the early nineteenth century, their use shrank to remote villages. Nomadic groups, who moved from place to place, kept them too. Westernised town dwellers saw the shoe as a sign of backwardness.

With a reinforced sole, it stayed the standard boot of Evzone units into the twentieth century. After the First World War, the laced boot slowly replaced it in active service. The shoe ties the Evzone uniform to Greek traditions of folk costume. Evzones were largely drawn from rural mountain regions.

• Leather: Each pair is hand-sewn from pieces of stiff leather, in the style of a moccasin.
• Pompon: A large woollen pompon covers the upturned toe, a feature also found in Turkey.
• Waterproofing: The pompon came late, first to waterproof the toe, then mainly as decoration.

Greek traditions now keep the tsarouchi almost only for the Presidential Guard and for traditional festivals and dances. Simpler versions also exist, shaped from a single piece of leather tied with thongs. Aromanians of the Balkans use a similar word, tsâruhi, for shoes.

What does the mountza gesture mean in Greek traditions?

Greek traditions treat the mountza as the time-honoured insulting gesture of Greeks and Mexicans. To make it, the hand opens with every finger spread wide. The open palm then moves forward towards the face of the person being insulted.

In Greek traditions, the mountza can come paired with short words such as na, meaning ‘here’. Others include par’ta, meaning ‘take these’, along with swear words. The gesture began in ancient times as a curse. The ancient name faskeloma, with its variant fáskelo, survives today as a synonym. A synonym is a word with the same meaning.

Greek traditions say the gesture backed up spoken curses against evil forces during the Eleusinian Mysteries. Those were secret rites held at Eleusis, near Athens. As a Byzantine punishment, an offender was led through town riding a donkey backwards. The offender’s face was smeared with cinder, or ash, called moutzos, to deepen the ridicule.

In later years, the name of the gesture changed to mountza. The cinder was first gathered in the palm and then wiped on the face with fingers spread. That movement became the insult itself, named after the material. In Greek traditions of speech, mountzoura, meaning a smudge, scribble or dark stain, shares the same origin.

• Armenia: In Armenia, abruptly thrusting the palm at someone delivers a curse.
• Spain: Spanish football fans use the gesture to mock rivals after their team scores five goals.
• Pakistan: In Pakistan, showing the palm in a thrusting way also counts as an insult.

Across the wider world, the mountza of Greek traditions lacks the same significance. In Mexico and Brazil, the same open hand, joined with a wave, can serve as a greeting. Since the 1990s, North Americans have used a similar sign with ‘Talk to the hand’.

How does Greek lace tie the Ionian Islands to Greek traditions?

Greek traditions count Greek lace among the earliest forms of all lace. The Ionian Islands, west of the Greek mainland, are recognised as the home of this craft. Reticella, a name also used for Greek lace as a whole, is one of its forms.

In Greek traditions, this lace decorated church vestments and cere cloths in large quantities. Vestments are clergy robes; a cere cloth is a waxed cloth. The earliest pieces used straight lines, buttoned over again and again. Buttoning over means covering a thread with close stitches. Makers first traced the pattern on parchment, then worked it on a cushion.

As the craft grew, Greek traditions of lace gained a wider range of geometric designs. Patterns became fuller, and the bars joining them grew more ornate. Circles and triangles were slowly added to give the lace more depth. Reticella appears in the Sforza Inventory, a list of goods, in 1493, and this spread the technique further.

The name is thought to date from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries, when Venice held the Ionian Islands. No evidence shows that Greek lace was ever made for sale in Greece itself. Early Greek traditions of lace used linen, silk, gold or silver threads, while cotton is common today.

• Needlepoint lace: Lace worked with a needle goes by the name needlepoint lace.
• Pillow lace: Lace made with bobbins, small thread spools, and pins on a cushion is called pillow lace.
• Machine lace: Machine-made Greek lace is either woven with two threads or embroidered on a base later removed.

In Greek traditions today, reticella counts as a furniture lace, used for decoration rather than clothing. Authentic Greek lace is now made chiefly in Italy. Modern pieces use flax thread only, rather than the silk of earlier times. Flax is the plant that gives linen.

What do travellers ask about Greek traditions, and what are the answers?

A Greek traditions classic is the fisherman’s cap, a peaked cap. It is commonly made of black or navy blue wool felt. Other names are mariner’s cap and skipper’s cap. Seafarers first made it popular, and it is linked with sailing.

Before Greek traditions of the sea come up, what marks the Greek fisherman’s cap?

By the 1880s, such caps were widespread in Greece and Turkey. They had a decorative cord chinstrap and a black embroidered ribbon on the peak. Greek coastal villagers wore it as part of a traditional costume. That costume added a roll neck sweater, loose trousers and tall boots.

Which hand sign do Greek traditions treat with care when showing the number five?

Greeks signalling five take care not to overextend the fingers. They also keep the palm turned away, so the sign is not taken for a mountza. The nearer a mountza comes to a face, the more intense it is considered. A two-handed version, one palm smacking the back of the other, is ruder still.

In Greek traditions, what does the word mangas mean today?

In modern Greek, mangas has become a word for a swaggering man, or simply ‘dude’ in casual talk. Depending on context, it can mean bully, thug or hooligan. In other contexts, it means a brave or crafty man. The later genre Laïko, a popular Greek song style, kept up the admiration of manges.

What other uses do Greek traditions give the komboloi?

Worry beads serve as an amulet, a charm kept to guard against bad luck. People who wish to smoke less also turn to them. Expensive strings made of silver or amber signal a person’s power and social standing. Relaxation and plain enjoyment count among their uses as well.