We are into December and preparations for Christmas are well under way. The Christmas services are being prepared by Peter, Myrtle and the Worship Group. Presents are being purchased as are trees and decorations and much thought is being given to our Christmas food. Another year, and another Christmas, with all the time honoured traditions passed down through the ages. Christmas is a Christian festival, with a few pagan rituals celebrated by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, with a few variations in custom. There is a vast communion of Christians who share our faith and have an ancient tradition, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Church.

The Greek Orthodox Christmas is very much a non-commercial festival although in the cities things are changing. It is essentially a solemn religious holiday. The Christmas season begins on December 6^th with the feast of St Nicholas when gifts are exchanged and continues until the feast of Epiphany on January 6^th. There is often a fast before the traditional Christmas meal. Beautiful carols – kaladas – which have come down from Byzantine times are sung and remote villages with their houses with whitewashed walls, stabled livestock and clear starry skies could almost be Bethlehem. However, all is not peace and love. We have Santa Claus being assisted by helpful elves. In Orthodox Greece they have the kallikatzas, mysterious and dangerous sprites, who prey on innocent folk during the twelve days of Christmas and who are credited with all sorts of unpleasantness. To keep the sprites from entering houses down the chimney, householders keep their fire burning continually using a yule log, set up on end into the chimney, and special protective herbs are hung by the fireplace. Other less devout folk simply put meat outside for the kallikatzas. Come Epiphany the priest blesses the waters which will settle the sprites for another year. On January 1^st, the feast day of St Basil, more gifts are exchanged and the ‘Renewal of the Waters’ takes place. All water jugs in the houses are emptied and refilled with new ‘St Basil’s Water’. This ceremony is often accompanied by offerings to the naiads, the spirits of springs and fountains. On January 6^th throughout Greece the ceremony ‘The Blessing of the Waters’ takes place where brave young men dive into chilly water to retrieve a cross. This has been blessed by a priest before being thrown into the water. He who recovers it will be blessed with good fortune throughout the year. Small boats and ships are also blessed and then music, feasting and dancing carries on until nightfall.

The Russian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7^th in accordance with the Julian Calendar. On Christmas Eve families gather for a special meal after the traditional fast which lasts until the first star appears in the sky. No meat is eaten and the primary dish is a type of porridge kutya.⁽¹⁾ Once the star appears, the ‘Holy Supper’ begins. The white tablecloth symbolises Christ’s swaddling clothes and hay is brought in as a reminder of the poverty of the stable. A tall white candle is placed in the centre of the table representing Christ as the light of the world and a large loaf of bread pagach⁽²⁾ (Christ the bread of life) is placed next to the candle. There are prayers and then the meal after which no dishes are washed and gifts are opened. The family then goes to church returning home between 2 and 3 in the morning. On Christmas Eve groups of folk dressed as manger animals would go from house to house to sing carols for which they would receive food and money.

On the feast of the Nativity, neighbours and friends go visiting one another and generally enjoying themselves. They sing special carols to the baby Jesus; kolyadki. As in the western church and the Greek orthodox, Santa Claus was the bringer of gifts. However, for seventy five years, under the heavy hand of Communism, all religious observances were banned, including Christmas and all its trappings. Folk are resourceful and in order to preserve some public display at this time, Santa Claus (St Nicholas) ‘changed’ into Ded Moroz or Grandfather Frost, who distributed gifts assisted by the Snowmaiden. Grandfather Frost bore more than a passing resemblance to Santa, except his suit was blue. The authorities banned the Christmas tree as well, so they became New Year Trees and they were decorated with homemade trimmings, as ornaments were either unavailable or far too costly. Now the folk of Eastern Europe celebrate Christmas in style with an all night Mass and all the old customs but they still enjoy New Year.

Christmas customs across the Christian world all carry some pagan influences and many traditions are similar, the visiting of peoples’ houses (Hogmanay and first footing), the burning of the Yule log, the twelve days of Christmas and the superstitions connected with same, jumping into chilly waters (Boxing Day swim across the Serpentine) to name a few. We all exchange gifts and sing carols and go to worship and gather together in families to give thanks for the birth of Jesus. My friend Sania, a young Serbian woman is a child of a Russian Orthodox father and a Roman Catholic mother At school she was the envy of all her friends because in her house they celebrated Christmas twice!

(2) http://pagach.com/