[eleni121]

Growing up in a Greek American family meant that Christmas was special and slightly different from the mainstream traditions of American Christmas---the traditions have blended but Americans ogf Greek descent maintain the religiosity of the holiday.

Back in Greece Christmas is traditionally a solemn, religious holiday. Very few exchange gifts although in recent years Greeks have started doing this more...along with more celebrating. Throughout the festivities, there is never any question about whether Greece is remembering the Christ in Christmas. Greeks go from house to house singing beautiful carols called kalandas which have been handed down from the Christian Orthodox Byzantine times and add to the reverent quality of the celebration.

During the 400 years enslavement of Greek Christians under the Ottoman Turks, Greek Christians would secretly celebrate holidays while anxiously wondering when the next slave roundup would occur - taking the young boys and girls off to the harems of Muslims.

Kala Christouyenna to all!

[Liz]

Thanks for the Greek Christmas story. Last year I did a post
in January in honor of the Orthodox Christmas celebrations.