Christmas Food on Greece Holidays
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The Greek Orthodox Christmas is an observance of faith and comes after a period of 40 days fasting. It's a more solemn affair than our Christmas and there aren't so many gaudy displays or Christmas lights. Lasting from St Nicholas's Day on December 6th until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, it is a period of coming together with friends and family and feasting. Visitors come on Greece holidays at this time to take part in the celebrations in the churches and to sample the delicious traditional Greek Christmas food.
Throughout Greece women will have been busy for weeks beforehand making the traditional Christmas cookies. The Greeks love sweet things. This was borne out of the fact that the peasants used to take sweet, stodgy pastries when they worked outside to fill them up and provide energy. This love of sweet things has entered into the Greek psyche. One of the most famous of these pastries and a great favourite with tourists from Aquis hotels is Melomakarona, which is sold in every bakery. Flavoured with the traditional Christmas spices of cinnamon, cloves and oranges, they are dipped in sugar syrup after baking and dipped in mixed nuts. Delicious! Another popular Christmas cookie is kourabiethes which are sugar shortbread biscuits which come in a variety of shapes. Made from toasted almonds or other nuts, they are baked and then drenched in confectioner's sugar. The traditional cookie baklavas come in a range of different flavours but it has always been traditional to eat sesame baklavas on Christmas Eve.
The women are up early on Christmas Day preparing all the Christmas dishes. Pork has always been the meat of choice in Greece as the slaughtering of the family pig always occurred in the winter. This meat used to last the family over the Christmas period with roast pork on Christmas day and sausages and stews for the rest of the time. A typical Christmas day meal in a Greek household would consist of a starter of soup, usually chicken and rice. Then the main course of pork stuffed with ground lamb or raisins with chestnuts would be served. To go with the pork there are side dishes of fried or roast potatoes, spinach and cheese pie, salads, olives and bread. Dessert is usually xerotiqana, honey dipped spiral pastries served with ice cream or fruit syrup. Then if there's any more room, the cheese board would be passed round with the strong Greek coffee. Christopsomo, a very traditional Greek bread and elaborately decorated is baked on Christmas Eve and a large cross cut into the top. Before the main meal, the man of the house makes the sign of the cross above the bread, cuts it and passes a slice to everyone at the table.
If staying at Aquis hotels on New Year's Day, you might be lucky enough to have a slice of the traditional New Year cake called Vasilopita. It is cake which has its origins in the legend of St Basil. He used to get the women at his church to bake a cake with coins inside. This he passed to the poor so that he could give them alms without appearing to give them charity as he realised that they too had their pride. To this day, there is always a coin in the cake and the person lucky enough to have it in their slice is assured good luck throughout the coming year.
Steve Alexander has a good knowledge of Aquis Hotels. For more information and deals on Aquis Hotels, as well as many more Greece holidays, go to TravelWasp.com.
Category Article Christmas, Greece, holidays
