Today is new year's eve! I was very tired yesterday and I am not working on Saturday so I decided to sleep as much as I could! But as every year on new year's eve, the day of Christmas and the day of Epiphany, I woke up by the sound of kids singing the new year's eve carol and playing with their triangles.
The tradition of caroling ( kalanta in Greek ) is very old in Greece, perhaps thousand of years. It is said that back in ancient Athens, kids would walk around the streets carrying small replicas of boats singing songs praising Dionysus. Apart from praises to Dionysus, other carols included wishes for the families, the head of the house, well being etc. Eventually this tradition persisted through Roman times and during the Byzantine era it was connected with the Christian tradition.
Nowadays kids go from house to house singing carols announcing the birth of Christ, asking the home owners ''Can we say them?'' meaning the carols ( or in Greek ''Na ta poume?''). Usually the kids then receive small gifts, money or traditional Christmas sweetes like Melomakarona ( or as I like to call them Christmas Happiness, Greeks will understand lol ) and Kourabiedes ( not a big fan ).
The most common new year's eve carol that you will hear in the cities is called ''First of the month, First of the year''. The lyrics commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ on earth, the coming of St.Basil, wishes for the new year and blessings for goodness. There are also many other variations of lyrics and carols throughout Greece and they all stem from different traditions. Some of them are the carols from Thrace, the carols of the Pontics Greeks, carols from the Dodecanese and many more. Nearly every place has also it's own traditions but all of them commemorate this special day with reference to Jesus Christ.
Greek caroling is a tradition that dates thousand of years and hopefully it will last for long in the future. While the tradition has somewhat waned in big cities, it still holds thousand of kids around Greece go out on this day and continue the tradition, so if anybody goes out today he will immediately notice kids running around with their triangles and sining carols. I used to go too when I was a kid but now I'm a little old to do it!
