painting by Nikiforos Lytras

If someone rings your doorbell early in the morning of  24, 31 December or 5 January, don’t think it’s a naughty neighbor determined to wake you up, it will probably be children singing the “calanda”, the Greek  Christmas carols. These are sung by groups of children or at least two, accompanied by little triangles, accordions, or guitars. As you open the door, the children will ask you: “Na ta poume?” (Shall we say them?). Your line here is: “Na ta pite” (go ahead and say them). After 25 groups of carol singers you may say: No, thank you, or just not open. Now, you should know that our calanda are very cheerful and joyful songs, they go way back in history (like everything else here), you will absolutely love them, you won’t understand a word because the language is formal Greek with a touch of Ancient Greek. Therefore, open your purse and give the little ones some money, even if you hated them, just for the time they spent learning all these words! You know, in the past homeowners offered the children sweets and pastries, but now…you can’t really pay for your PLAYSTATION with melomakarona, can you?

We’ll be back with more about Christmas in Greece.

* “children singing the Christmas carols”: by Nikiforos Lytras

Now that Christmas is just around the corner, it’s time we learnt some things about Greek customs and traditions. Today’s story is about KALIKANTZARI.

They are the Greek elves; only not so benign. They are naughty and mischievous and they live in the center of the earth where they try to cut down the tree that holds the earth with axes and saws. When Christmas comes, as their job is nearly done, they leave the rest for New Year, and climb up onto the surface of the earth to tease people. They try to get into the houses through the fireplaces and stay there teasing people from the beginning of Christmas season until the 6^th of January,  the Epiphany when the priest goes around all houses and sends them away with Holy water. Once they go back to the center of the earth, they find the tree whole and intact, so they start sawing all over again until the next Christmas.

Now, whenever everything goes wrong one day, you know why! Put the blame on the Kalikantzari

Mischievous creatures !

the tradition of VASILOPITA

“Kalin imeran archondes” (“good day Lords”)

Today we are going to send you on a strange, but very entertaining and…dirty trip outside Athens to celebrate Clean Monday.We are sending you to Galaxidi, a usually peaceful seaside town, which brings in the first day of Orthodox Lent with a massive flour war! Visitors and residents (only if they want to) put on goggles, masks, and their oldest clothes and scramble to chuck flour dyed in bright colours at everybody. After all the flour has been thrown, the powdery people gather into the centre of their colourful town and the party starts with eating, drinking, and dancing. We have been there, as you can see in the photos, and we can tell you that we had the time of our lives. The only problem we had was driving back to Athens with all that flour in our ears and noses, so if you can spend that night there and get cleaned up it’s better.

Have a nice Kathari Deftera (Clean Monday)!

ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΓΑΙΑ

Πλάθοντας Γεύσεις της Γιορτής και της Παράδοσης
Κυριακή 30 Ιανουαρίου

1 2: 00 – 1 4: 00

για παιδιά 6 έως 13 ετών

Δράση με προβολή εικόνων και δραστηριότητα πλαστικής,
με αφορμή παραδοσιακά εδέσματα της Μεσογείου.
Με τη εικαστικό και παιδαγωγό Τέχνης Πολυξένη Τσοπάνογλου – Παπαρρηγοπούλου.

Οι άνθρωποι στη Μεσόγειο, όπως και σε πολλά άλλα μέρη του κόσμου,
συνόδευαν τις γιορτές και τα σημαντικά γεγονότα της ζωής τους με την
παρασκευή ξεχωριστών εδεσμάτων. Χριστόψωμα, λαζαράκια, αυγούλες,
ψωμιά της Πεντηκοστής, πίτες του βασιλιά, κουλούρες του γάμου, σε φόρμα
στεφανιού, πουλιού ή ανθρώπου είναι κάποια από τα εδέσματα που θα μας
εμπνεύσουν για να πλάσουμε.

Μέσα από την προβολή εικόνων των παραδοσιακών αυτών εδεσμάτων, και με
την βοήθεια του εμψυχωτή, τα παιδιά έχουν την ευκαιρία να τα γνωρίσουν και
να μάθουν τα έθιμα με τα οποία συνδέονται. Στη συνέχεια με αλάτι, αλεύρι και
νερό θα ετοιμάσουν την πρώτη ύλη για να δώσουν φόρμα, να στολίσουν και να
αναπαραστήσουν τα ξεχωριστά αυτά εδέσματα.

Πληροφορίες – Κρατήσεις – Εγγραφές:

Tμήμα Εκπαιδευτικών Προγραμμάτων –Κέντρου ΓΑΙΑ

(καθημερινά 9:00 – 14:30 εκτός Σαββατοκύριακου )
τηλ. 210 80 15 870 εσωτ.582
emmieg@gnhm.gr , www.gnhm.gr

Κόστος 10 ευρώ
ΕΙΣΟΔΟΣ: Όθωνος 100, Κηφισιά
Περιορισμένος αριθμός θέσεων, απαραίτητη η κράτηση θέσης!

Last Friday (17th September) we went, as planned, to Dora Stratou dance theatre.

The group was multi-national-there were Germans, Swiss, French, Americans, and us.

The performance was colourful, interesting, full of music, songs and nothing like the “tourist”shows you may have seen before.

You really should have come,but get ready for our next one!

Dance from the Cyclades

Dance from Thrace

Dance from Crete

Dance from the Peloponnese

One more thing: would you be interested in taking Greek dance classes?

We have the ideal teacher!!!

The guide was amazing, she switched from English to German and then to French without hesitating when she saw that it would be easier for some of our friends to follow what she was saying.

The things she told us were extremely interesting,we saw costumes

and learned their background and history,about the various fabrics they used and why, how the costumes were related to the historical and social events and lots of other things.

Then the dancing lesson, then dancing with the professional team of the Lykeion,

their hospitality and friendliness,…it was all so beautiful!

We loved it, we loved being with all of you and getting you into our life and culture. We like your openness, your interest in learning more about the country you live in,either permanently or temporarily, and we are here to offer you more chances to do that. Don’t think that we are the only ones who offer,we learn from you as well,we learn about your cultures, we want to meet you because we like open-minded people wherever they come from.Thanks for your participation and we are confident we will see you again at our next event. Don’t forget,we’ve only just begun!

I’ve just come home from the centre of Athens where I visited the Lyceum Club of Greek Women, which was founded in 1911 in Greece by Callirroe Parren,

a pioneer of the feminist movement in Greece and the first woman journalist.

The Lyceum is a volunteer organization which has, for 93 years, played an important role in the preservation and presentation of Greek cultural traditions and folk customs.

Why all that? Because we are organizing an event there for you, which will involve a visit to their exhibition of traditional costumes,dancing, and we’ll say no more!

All we can tell you is that you will just love it!!!

The two dates we have in mind are 12/3 (roughly 5-9) and 16/4 .

The event has to be on a Friday evening, we’ll tell you why later.

Another idea we are toying with is a visit there on a Saturday morning with kids who will attend a dance group with children or a workshop.

What we need you to do is write us to say whether you’re interested and when.

All our photos and info. have been taken from the Lyceum’s annual publications