New Year

New Year!January 1 is an important date in Greece not only because it is the first day of the New Year, but also because it is St. Basil's Day (Agios Vasilias), whom the Greeks revere for kindness and generosity towards the poor. Children in Greece believe that St. Vasily visits the houses, penetrating through the chimney, so they leave a shoe by the fireplace the night before the New Year - in the hope that the good Vasily will come and fill it with gifts.

Residents of Greece, going to visit to celebrate the New Year, take a stone with them, which is thrown at the door of a hospitable house. If the stone is heavy, it is said, “Let the riches of the master be as heavy as this stone.” And if the stone is small, they wish: “Let the thorn in the eye of the owner be as small as this stone.” It is customary to exchange the so-called “photics”: sticks with citrus fruits strung on them, figs, apples, lollipops and a candle at the top.

There is also a custom according to which at exactly midnight the head of the family goes out into the courtyard and smashes the fruit of the pomegranate against the wall. If its grains spread far in the yard, the family will live happily in the new year. After this ritual, family members must dip their finger in honey and lick it.


New Year's menu:

The Greeks fry a piglet for the feast, baked potatoes are served to him. The islands prefer turkey in wine. And then dessert - a special traditional spicy, soaked in honey syrup, cookies.

But the most important thing on the New Year's table should be "vasilopita" - a pie decorated with patterns of dough, currants and nuts, inside which a coin is baked. Whoever gets it will have a happy year. The first piece of cake is intended for St. Basil, the second piece for the house, the next for the oldest member of the family, and so on up to the youngest, who gets the last. Some girls even put their piece of cake under the pillow, to see in a dream the narrowed.

If you decide to celebrate the New Year in Greek, you will have to observe many prohibitions: do not shout, do not grind and do not drink coffee, do not let black dogs into the house, do not beat dishes and much more.

If you are fond of history and want to celebrate the New Year like the ancient Greeks, then remember that in ancient Greece the beginning of the year was not on January 1, but on the longest day of the year - June 22.