TRADITIONS OF THE DODECAHEMERON IN BYZANTIUM

Just like the other major feast days (Pascha; Easter, Transfiguration, Nativity and Dormition of the Virgin Mary), people decorated the exterior and interior of their homes with garlands of myrtle, rosemary, and seasonal flower and blossom bouquets. Young children and men would form teams that, between the early dawn until sunset, would visit all the homes, playing reeds and other woodwind musical instruments accompanying sung Kalanta (Κάλαντα).

Unlike the caroling in the West, the Kalanta consisted of a cycle of sung greetings and well-wishes to the head of the family and his loved ones for the festive period, a series of celebratory rhyming verses commemorating the festal period and the key personages, and an end that repeated good wishes, hoping that good favors from God visit the particular family. It was customary for the head of the household to give the singers and musicians a token of gratitude for the visit and the well-wishes in the form of goods -including money. Although a period of fasting preceded the Dodecahemeron, the feast days of the Nativity and Epiphany were celebratory, and the food was often elaborate, prepared with care and to the highest culinary standards. These traditions were passed down among the people who lived in the former geography of the Byzantine Empire (mainly Asia Minor and Greece) and constitute the chief traditions of the Dodecahemeron celebration today, which include the eve and the day of the Nativity (Christmas), New Year’s Day, and Epiphany.