GREEK CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS ΙÎ? GREECE Prepared by the students of the 6th Grade and Ms Thalia Hadzigiannoglou (EFL Teacher in the 7th Primary school of Agii Anargiri, Athens, Greece). December, 2008

Introduction

Greece

is in the South of Europe. Greeks are Christian Orthodox. We

celebrate Christmas on 25th December, New Year on 1st January and Epiphany on 6th January.

We have special customs for these occasions. Read and try to find out.

In Greece

close on the 23rd of

________________s

December. We have a school Christmas celebration on that day. Children

________________

and

sing

Christmas

January. 7th January is devoted to St John the Baptist

During

______________

these

days,

.

. Schools open again on the 7th

Sometimes, they exchange ___________

Christ.

______________

we

celebrate

and ______________

1

, who baptized Jesus

____________

,

Describe what we do during Advent

We decorate the ________________

with Christmas _____________

. On top of the tree, we put the Christmas_____________. that guided the Wise Men, or Maji, to Jesus in the stable. On some Greek islands, people

decorate a _____________

___________

, not a tree. We put a _____

or a

in the house for Good Luck.

Streets and shops are also decorated. At Syntagma Square, in Athens, Greece, we decorate a big Christmas Tree. At the bottom of the tree, you can see the __________

and also ____________ and the 3 _________________ . They bring Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh.

We buy ______________

.

Children write letters to ____________

__________

and tell him what they want as a

.

2

Describe what we do on Christmas Eve

In the morning, the children go out and sing the ________________

They get ____________

We prepare the Christmas _____________

At night, the family sits round the dining table and ____________ They say “Merry Christmas”. In Greek it means “Chronia Polla”.

Describe what we do on Christmas Day

In the morning, we go to _______________ finishes,

we ____________

. When the Holy Service

friends and relatives and wish them “Merry Christmas”.

We prepare the Christmas lunch. We eat roasted ______________ vegetables.

We drink __________________

We also eat the Christmas ________________

3

.

with

Describe what we do on New Year’s Eve

Children go out and sing the New Year’s Eve ______________

.

They get ____________

We prepare the New Year’s Dinner. We eat _________________

pie

and meat

.

At ___________________

, the year changes and we _______________

each other and wish “Happy New Year”.

_______________

is coming on a ____________

_____________

. He brings ______________

children. He comes through the _____________

________________

with

for the

and puts the gifts in a

. Children wake up in the morning and open their

.

After midnight, we cut the New Year’s pie. We call it “VASILOPITA”. We have put

a ___________

in it. The person who finds the coin will have good luck,

throughout the year.

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Describe what we do on Epiphany Epiphany: The last of the 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Christ to the gentiles, as represented by the visiting Wise Men. We celebrate Epiphany on the 6th January.

On

Epiphany

Eve,

____________

children

go

out

and

sing

the

Epiphany

.

They get ____________

The parish ____________

visits he houses to bless them and people throw ____

in a pot with water. He also throws water inside the house with a branch of

basil, a plant with a nice aroma

.

On Epiphany Day, we go to _____________________

Service, the ______________

________________

. After the Holy

with the people go to the

or to a _____________

to bless the

water. He throws a______________

in the water and young men ______________

to get it. The first who gets

it is blessed and visits the houses with the cross and gets ________________ We believe that no see accidents will happen throughout the year, because the water is blessed.

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