With the Christmas just around the corner it's always a time of traditional celebrations but also a time for a review of the year that it is about to leave us. The other day at the office we were asked to decorate our desks with traditional but also international Christmas themes. Being in transport, I couldn't choose anything else than the old Greek Christmas tradition of decorating a miniature boat.
Way before the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree, children in Greek islands used to decorate a miniature ship with small miniature flags and other ornaments, usually a replica of the ones that they saw every day in their islands . They took these miniatures boats out in their Christmas carol runs and they served as trays for the gifts they received from the houses they visit. Mandarins, oranges, nuts and almonds, traditional sweets like loukoumia, kourambiedes or melomakarona were their reward for singing the carols and their decorated boats were filled with them.
Way before the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree, children in Greek islands used to decorate a miniature ship with small miniature flags and other ornaments, usually a replica of the ones that they saw every day in their islands . They took these miniatures boats out in their Christmas carol runs and they served as trays for the gifts they received from the houses they visit. Mandarins, oranges, nuts and almonds, traditional sweets like loukoumia, kourambiedes or melomakarona were their reward for singing the carols and their decorated boats were filled with them.
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| Children in Naxos island, Greece singing carols with tzabouna and doubaki, magazine “NAXIAKA” 16, 1987, p. 18 (photo Ν. Kefalliniadis) |
It seems that it is not accurate that these decorated boat was the centre of the Christmas
house decoration even though the modern Christmas tree was not known in
Greece before 1833 that King Otto brought this tradition from
western Europe. The houses were decorated during Christmas with
different things like green branches as a symbol of hope for the
upcoming spring or a big wild onion as a symbol of fertility and
euphoria. But the symbolism behind the decorated boat was different: It
was not just a welcome and an homage to their sailor fathers that
returned home for the holidays but also a symbol of a float to a new and better life.
This symbolic ship symbolises for me and my family our transition to Australia and the start of a new more promising life. And this first year was exactly that: promising and full of adventures, challenges and simple every day life pleasures. I hope that this Christmas boat is also symbolic for my place of birth: It will show the way out of the economic and social crisis and into a bright future that Greek people deserve.
I wish all my friends, colleagues at work and readers of this blog merry Christmas and happy new year. May you find in life your decorated little boat that will travel you in friendly water and safely to the desired destination.
Peace and freedom to you all.
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| Nikiphoros Lytras (1832–1904) |
I wish all my friends, colleagues at work and readers of this blog merry Christmas and happy new year. May you find in life your decorated little boat that will travel you in friendly water and safely to the desired destination.
Peace and freedom to you all.
