Kallikantzaroi – Greek Christmas Goblins
Kallikantzaroi – Greek Christmas goblins
Many of the same customs and traditions as well as folklore are practiced and believed all over the World no matter where they originated.
Through the years the stories have been tweaked a bit here and altered a bit there; bits added and bits taken away.
Basically they are the same story; told in another country, another age, another religion, another belief.
The Kallikantzaroi is one such story which has become Greek Christmas tradition.
What are Kallikantzaroi?
Kallikantzaros-Greek Christmas goblin
Kallikantzaroi (Kallikantzaros singular) are mischievous Greek goblins, elves or gnomes.
They come up to the surface of the Earth during the twelve days of Christmas from the end of December, when the sun will not move again, until the sixth of January; Epiphany, where they cause all sorts of trouble and mischief.
These twelve days are also known as the winter solstice, celebrated in ancient Greece in the month of Poseidon and in medieval times; yule or yuletide.
For the rest of the year they live at the center of the Earth where they spend their time using a large saw to cut down The World Tree, or The Tree Of Life, that holds up the World.
Greek Christmas goblins – Kallikantzaroi cutting down The World Tree
Kallikantzaroi are said to be small, black and male, mostly blind, with long black tails.
They speak with a lisp and eat small creatures such as worms, snails and frogs.
They only come out at night and are afraid of the sun, fire and holy water.
They enter houses anyway they can; through windows, down chimneys through keyholes and any cracks that they may find, in walls and around doors.
Once inside they cause havoc.
Rather than being evil demons they are considered impish and stupid.
Various stories of creepy Christmas imps and demons from other cultures may have them appearing on the Twelfth Day as werewolves and witches etc.
Kallikantzaroi enter houses anyway they can, once inside they cause havoc.
Their names and their games
In Greek folklore there are lots of these mischievous, troublesome little imps known as Kallikantzaroi, maybe up to twenty and furthermore; they all have their own names and traits!
Below I’ve listed some of them; depending on which story you read the names may differ slightly.
Kallikantzaro – Greek creepy Christmas goblins
Katachanas
Katachanas can’t stop eating; he can’t get enough and eats everything in sight.
He also stinks something awful!
Magaras
Magaras has a big fat drum-like belly and leaves terrible, filthy smells all over people’s food.
Malaganas
Malaganas is a slick one; he craves attention and will do anything to get it.
He deceives children with sweet words enabling him to filch their sweets from them.
Mantrakoukos (or Protos or Koutsos)
Mantrakoukos; the chief, stocky, short-legged, clumsy, ugly and dangerous to know.
He hides away all day and at night he goes out and teases women.
Kopsomesitis
Kopsomesitis is a lame hunchback with a weakness for pancakes with honey.
Malaperdas
Malaperda: If housewives forget to make sure lids are on pans whilst cooking food Malaperda will grab that chance to urinate over what’s cooking!
Kolovelonis
Kolovelonis is as long as string of macaroni, with a tail that ends in an arrow and can easily pass through keyholes, sieve and colander holes.
He’s extremely agile and fast in his movements.
Paroritis
Paroritis has a long, soft nose like an elephant.
He shows up shortly before the rooster crows and has a great talent of mimicking people’s voices.
Katsipodiaris or Megas Kalikantzaros – Goat-foot
Goat-foot is the boss; vicious, miserable, rude, lazy and bald with a goat’s leg.
Not a pretty picture!
Wherever he goes he brings disaster.
Planetarium
Planet deceives people because he has the ability to transform into an animal.
Slot Machine
Slot has one short arm and one long arm; he often becomes terribly confused and falls about all over the place.
Vatrakoukos
Vatrakoukos is huge and looks just like a frog.
Kopsacheilis
Kopsacheila has huge teeth which hang over his lips.
He likes to make fun of priests and that is why he usually wears a fake priest’s hat.
Paganos or Protos or Megalos
Panagos is lame, said to have become so from a kick from Maro’s donkey, a village girl who was once chased by Paganos who wanted make her his wife but she hid in the bags of flour she had loaded on her donkey and managed to escape.
How to protect yourself from Kallikantzaroi
Kallikantzaroi-Greek Christmas goblins
It’s said that if you leave a colander on your doorstep at night, the Kallikantzaroi, who can only count to two and consider the number three holy and will kill themselves before pronouncing it, will spend all night counting the holes.
They only ever reach the number two and start again so as not to utter the word three!
At sunrise they disappear without having had time to cause any mischief.
Another form of protection is to mark your door with a black cross on Christmas Eve.
Yet another is to burn a smelly shoe on the fire; the foul smell will keep them away!
Now here is an interesting bit:
To stop the kallikantzaroi from coming down the chimney a large log is found and burnt for twelve days until the sixth of January, when the Kallikantzaroi will go back to the centre of the Earth.
This ties in with the Norse tradition of Yuletide – the Yule log; burnt for the duration of the winter solstice until the sun is on the move again!
Yule log
In Greek folklore the kallikantzaroi are frightened away on the sixth of January; Epiphany, by Greek priests go who through all the houses blessing them with holy water splashed around with a bunch of fresh basil.
Greek priest, Epiphany
As you can see in some cultures the goblins, or kallikantzaroi, disappear because of the movement of the sun on the sixth of January (remember; they don’t like the sun), or as in Greece, on the same day – Epiphany, when holy water, which they are afraid of, is being splashed around.
I strongly suspect, these kallikantzaroi are the same goblins or elves that help Santa Claus; Saint Nicholas and what about the mischievous little leprechauns of Irish folklore?
Are they all connected?
I shall have to look into that!
Christmas elves
By the way, when the Kallikantzaroi arrive back at the centre of the Earth, they find that The World Tree has fully grown again; out comes their large saw and they start to chop it down all over again.
World Tree, or, Tree of Life
Until next year, stay safe and goblin free!
Related Greek Christmas posts:
Greek Christmas Boat (Karavaki)
Vasilopita: Greek New Year’s Cake
Top 15 Greek Christmas and New Year Traditions
Traditional Greek Christmas Sweets
