Top 15 Greek Christmas and New Year Traditions
Every culture has its own unique, sometimes quirky, customs and traditions. Greece is no exception and seems to have more than its fair share of Christmas and New Year celebrations. The twelve...
Category: Greek Customs traditions & celebrations
Saint Barbara the Great Martyr – Beheaded by her Father
Saint Barbara, a third-century martyr, lived in Nicomedia with her rich pagan father, Dioscorus, who imprisoned her in a tower and after discovering she had secretly become a Christian, beheaded Barbara himself...
The Pharmakos – The Ancient Greek Scapegoat
The expression “scapegoat”, known as the “pharmakos”, in ancient Greece, describes an innocent person, or group, who is blamed and usually punished in some way, for other people’s wrong-doings or problems, without...
Ancient Secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries – Walking the Sacred Way
Little to nothing is known about The Eleusinian Mysteries and probably never will be as nothing was ever written down. Participants of this member’s only cult were sworn to secrecy; to spill...
Cynisca – The First Woman to Win the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece
At the time, 396 BC, the victory of Cynisca, a Spartan princess and according to Pausanius, ancient Greek travel writer, the first female champion of the ancient Olympic Games, was an unheard...
The Month of Poseidon – Winter Solstice in Ancient Greece
In ancient Greece calendars deviated from city state to city state but more often than not, the month named in honour of the ancient Greek god of the sea; Poseidon, fell at...
Pentecost – Birth of the Christian Church – in Greece a Three Day Celebration
Pentecost (from the Greek ‘pentekostos’, meaning the fiftieth day) is a ‘moveable feast’ celebrated each year on the fiftieth day after Easter and ten days after the Feast of the Ascension of Christ...
The Ancient Greek Origins of April Fool’s Day
‘April Fools’ Day’ or ‘All Fools’ Day’, a day of practical jokes, hoaxes and pranks, falls on the first of April, the month which, incidentally, is named after the Greek goddess of...
Kottabos – A Crazy Ancient Greek Drinking Game
Why not Party like an ancient Greek? Let the wine flow freely, drink from cups decorated with decadent scenes intended to set the atmosphere for a crazy game of kottabos, where prizes...
Kyra Sarakosti – Mrs. Lent – a Greek Easter Tradition
Kyra Sarakosti, Mrs. Lent or Lady Lent Kyra Sarakosti, Mrs. Lent or Lady Lent, is a charming, old Greek custom, connected to Lent, the seven week, (forty days) period of fasting...
