 tradition in Greece, especially the islands, the Greek people decorate ships instead of Christmas trees to celebrate the holiday season. It may be simply a coincidence that the warm and ebullient country of Greece, which serves as a mainland to 2,000 islands in southeastern Europe, begins and ends its Christmas season with the religiously symbolic substance of water. Although this country is tiny – smaller than the state of Alabama – there is nothing small about the pride that Greeks take in their Christmas traditions, with and without water. Most of Greece’s 11 million residents are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which makes them Greek Christians. They believe that John the apostle wrote the Bible’s Book of Revelations on the island of Patmos, which is part of the Dodecanese group of islands, only 40 miles from the Turkish coast.
Plants and Death
Plants have been associated with the burial of the dead since at least the 16th Century. In the medieval period placing flowers on graves may have been problematic as the vicar or curate was often allowed to graze his animals in the churchyard. In the South of England disturbances resulting from this were sometimes guarded against through constructing wicker or willow fences around the grave. However people started objecting to anything that might damage or disturb the grave, especially in the wake of new ideas about reverence to the dead in order to protect expensive monuments such as gravestones which were becoming increasingly fashionable.
Others important superstitions
Leap year: There is a Greek superstition that claims couples have bad luck if they marry during a leap year. Apparently one in five engaged couples in Greece will avoid planning their wedding during a leap year.
Bread: In villages, bread is considered as a gift of God; old women bless the bread and make the sign of the cross with a knife before slicing it.
Sneezing: means that someone is talking or thinking about you. You can ask someone to give you a 3 digit number. Count each digit together and then find the corresponding letter in the alphabet. This letter is supposed to be the initial of the person that is talking about you.
Mirror: If you break a mirror, you will have 7 years bad luck. Many also believe that if you look at the mirror after midnight, great evil will find you.
Knives: Greeks never hand knives to someone who asks for it for they consider that if they do that they will have a fight or argument with the person. Therefore they set it down on the table or somewhere and let the other person take it her / him hand.
Scissors: if a pregnant sit on open scissors unintentionally, she will give birth to a boy. If you leave it open you will soon have an argument with somebody.
Priest: Greek Orthodox priests ( popes ) are very revered and the custom is to kiss a priest’s hand in respect when meeting one, today this custom is only followed in small villages. But it is believed that seeing a black cat and a priest during the same day is bad luck.
Salt: Makes unwelcome visitors to leave. All you need is to shoot a little behind theirback.
Garlic: The ancient Greek name for garlic was scorodon. According to Fulder and Blackwood, French physician Henri Leclerc derived this from skaion rodon which he translated as rose puante, or “stinking rose”. Garlic (Allium sativum) has been used for thousands of years for medicinal purposes. Sanskrit records show its medicinal use about 5,000 years ago, and it has been used for at least 3,000 years in Chinese medicine. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans used garlic for healing purposes. In 1858, Pasteur noted garlic’s antibacterial activity. Garlic is another way to ward off the evil eye, and one can sometimes see it hanging in a corner of some houses. Garlic, as well as onion, is also considered of having a great healing power by many Greeks. If someone is feeling ill, they will advice him to eat garlic.
Black cat (μαύρηγάτα): If you see a black cut means that bad luck is waiting for you for the rest of the day.
Ladybug: It is the opposite of the b