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 ______________
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, 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
.
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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 ________________
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.
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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