THE CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS OF MODERN GREECE

The practices of singing the Kalanta and the elaborate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day repasts, based on recipes handed down from Byzantine times, remain alive, today, among Greeks in Greece, immigrants in the Diaspora, and their children and grandchildren. The singing of the Kalanta, the preparation, decoration, and serving of special breads for Christmas (Christopsomon/Χριστόψωμον; Christmas bread) and for the First of January (Vasilopita/Βασιλόπιτα; bread commemorating St. Basil), together with other traditions specific to certain geographic regions of Greece, form the backbone of the Christmas and Dodecahemeron traditions.