Christmas

Greek Cypriots celebrate the birth of the Savior according to the Gregorian calendarGreek Cypriots celebrate the Birth of the Savior on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar. Unlike Easter, which is a holiday for Cypriots and a celebration of celebrations (as for all Orthodox Christians), Christmas is a quiet family holiday, when the whole family gathers at one table.

For the Christmas meal, meat is prepared, namely pork! Moreover, the housewives not only bake it in the form of the usual ham, but also fry various culinary products from this meat: smoked Cypriot mini-sausages, which are prepared a few weeks before the holiday, cakes on pork lard, hollow, smoked ham with spices. Somewhere away from the hustle and bustle of the city, in the countryside, Christmas is celebrated on a large scale. Closer to midnight, through the foliage of orange trees, the aroma of roast piglets is heard.

This is a special tradition. Good housewives begin to fatten the best pig long before the celebration: about a year the pig gains weight, becomes fatter. Just before the holiday, the pig is slaughtered. And this must be done by the head of the family, and the owner does not trust anyone to prepare such a piglet either. Before roasting pork on an open fire, the head of the family sprinkles the carcass with coriander, salt and other seasonings that are loved in the family.

The second most important dish of the Christmas table is sweets. The main one is Christoculura, in the middle of which a candle is placed, as a sign that everyone in this house is ready for the meeting of the Born Child. In some villages there is still a belief that on the eve of Christmas somewhere in the attic, on the roof of the house, it is necessary to leave a piece of festive cake, in order to appease evil spirits, on the other hand, to scare away.

By the way, Christmas cake in form and preparation resembles English. This is not surprising, because Cyprus has long been under the protectorate of England, which could not but affect the cooking of the island, too.

Faithful Cypriots necessarily go late in the evening to the temple for the festive Christmas service, and only then join the festive table and allow themselves to break.

Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer young people in Cypriot churches. With the accession of Cyprus to the EU, Christmas began to be celebrated in a very European way. This also applies to jewelry. A few years ago, Christmas on this island was celebrated in a special way, with a true Cypriot flavor, when at midnight everything seemed to freeze, and only with the onset of the day everything became brighter, louder and more cheerful.