Special Announcement-be Carefull

I have to announce you my dear friends that Elfs got out of their nests under the earth last night and they are among us by Last Night!!!

As every yar they will stay until the 6th of January when Jesus will be baptised and the Holly Water will drag them away

Beware!!! They came to destroy our cookies by stepping on them with their dirty goat legs

They came to drive the little old ladies crazy by putting the fire in the fireplace off

They came to eat the tongues of notty children
And many many more bad things

You have to take some precautions if you do not want to be in trouble with the Elfs

You have to stay silent while you make cookies, especially the children...
You should not open the door without being certain who is waiting outside ( Elfs immitate the voices of your relatives and friends so be carefull)
You have to put a dry piece of wood out side your door.

This wood is absolutely anti-evil and anti-elf...

I will be back with anti-elf recipes but I have to go bake now in silence...

No singing... just dancing...

 

Let me send you my mail address Nancy...

 

My elfs Panini came couple of days earlier in Athens...

I opened the door and it was one of them standing and having the same face with me , holding in her hand a bottle of canola as gift...(at least I had the chance to taste canola)

My sister Melina who has stayed many years in the States and she adopted this frozen sense of american humor...

(Sorry guys but you must have heard the nasty european jokes for the american humor...)

 

Propably you are talking about the lefs of New England, Cape Chef.
Here we do not have forests or our forests do not look at all like yours... Not to tell that we lack water.

Our elfs they are ugly, very ugly and they have goat legs.
And will call them "Kalikantzaroi"

kalikantaroi are the malefic creatures that according to the Greek Folk culture, they appear on earth the Christmas eve and they stay for 12 days, until the 6th of February that we have the great Ortodox festivity of Theofaneia the "appearence of God' "that took place during the baptism of Jesus by St John.

The existence of kallikantzaroi dates back to the Byzantine era where people use to celebrate the three major festivities (Christmas, new Year and Theofaneia) with music, songs, and masquerades(relics of ancient rituals)! Yes!!! They were celebrating Christmas with maquarades!!

Of course the masqued persons were getting drunk and started teasing people, dancing with strangers in the streets and very often entered the houses of innocent people claiming for food and deserts.

The Byzantines , in order to avoid the intrudors locked their doors and windows but the masqued persons enjoyed to find ways to enter houses so sometimes they tried even the chimneys of the fireplaces! I forgot to tell yuo the other day that elfs are entering the house using the chimney.

Some times those masquerades were lasting for 12 days and the ended at Theofaneia! That's why we believe that elfs stay onm earth for 12 days...

As time passed these masquerades, which were annoying to the majority of people because they went out of control, were related with the souls of dead people and by confusing these two perceptions kalikanztaroi - the greek elfs of Christmas period, were born.

Ancient Greeks belived that the souls of dead people sometimes during the year when they found the door of Hades opened, they returned to the world of living and they were strolling around with no control and restrictions.

The most intersting thing is to find out why those festivities lasted for 12 days...
12 is not a magical number ( as 7 for example)

Long ago they used to call these 12 days "Untied" with No leash...

What did they want to say by untied nights?

Years before fixing the date for Christmas and New Year time was not counted with the solar year but the lunar cicle. In that way one year was devided into 13 months.

As you know the use of lunar circle to count time resulted in missing days. So when the solar year of 365 days was set they counted that 12 days were raimaining and they added them to the year.

The old fashioned people that they refused to accept the new calendar they started calling these days untied, days that they were not tied to the tree of the world and they left a door opened. This was the door that kalikantzaroi were using-according to the tradition- to come up to the world.

Kalikantzaroi are one of our favourite fairy tales, of course after the mermaids but mermaids is another chapter of our culture...

 

I am trying to find elfs that look like kalikantzro but no luck so far...
I am not that good in gifs searching anyway...
I am also bored to do such things

 

I will work on this one Isa and I will be back

Kimmie, you wil laught hard now for what I am going to say...

I am a very rational person, so I am not sure that I believe in God and things like - I think I do not BUT the role of church is very important in my country, not the way the Catholic Church is, I mean The Archibishop does not interfere in the government.
I strongly believe in tradition though and tradition in Greece is the Ortodox Church whether we, the modern Greeks like it or not.

So I have cought myself doing some of the things that are described in your text. crossing the traditional oven and many more.
I have the feeling that I preserve the tradition that way and tradition is not something theoritical but the everyday practice.

I make liturgical breads also.
And I have special vessels for those breads that I use them while kneading and baking them.
And liturgical breads, before baking are sealed with big, round, wooden seals. I have one of my great great mother which is 200 years old and changed hands from mother to daughter.
I consider this wooden seal one of the most precious things I owe.

Of course, tradition wants that only old women make such breads or women that they do not have any king of relations with men.
Bread symbolizes the Body of Jesus in or Holy Communition Wine symbolizes His Blood) so WE NEVER throw away bread in Greece.Not only the liturgical bread but every kind of bread.
I have to tell you that I am getting REALLY mad when I see people throwing bread away. 50 years earlier we had nothing but bread in this country.

Do you know what we do if we have to trow bread away?

We burn it in the fireplace!

Thanks for this passage Kimmie. I felt nice reading in a very modern and vivid forum like this one ,about things that people laugh at these day

 

He he he

The dreadfull Greek Elves The Kalikantzaroi are coming out the minute after the sunset and they stay on the upper world until the black cock announces the arrival of the new day...

The precautions against kalikantzaroi should be taken by old women because they are experienced enough and hey know all the possible tricks that tose creatures may invent in order to access cookies , sausages etc etc

During the 12 days that they were on the Earth, in the villages the light up big fires to keep them away.

But to the houses they focised their anti-elves recipes in the fireplace and in the door...

The grandmother should take some coals frm the fireplace , put some incense on the top and just carry about in every room this inscense.

In he doors they made a cross out of honey and they put salt on it

Also a dry wood kept them away. You know elves are not so smart. They are over-confident and they are caught easily.
You just had to be experienced

As a say this world is not for the youngs. You have to wait until you ripe in order to have serious chances to survive

Well Isa if they are elves that are used to nmy cookies then they prefer the sesame , boiled ones and those that are made with my pure and beloved olive oil.

 

He he he

The dreadfull Greek Elves The Kalikantzaroi are coming out the minute after the sunset and they stay on the upper world until the black cock announces the arrival of the new day...

The precautions against kalikantzaroi should be taken by old women because they are experienced enough and hey know all the possible tricks that tose creatures may invent in order to access cookies , sausages etc etc

During the 12 days that they were on the Earth, in the villages the light up big fires to keep them away.

But to the houses they focised their anti-elves recipes in the fireplace and in the door...

The grandmother should take some coals frm the fireplace , put some insect on the top and just carry about in every room this insect.

In he doors they made a cross out of honey and they put salt on it

Also a dry wood kept them away. You know elves are not so smart. They are over-confident and they are caught easily.
You just had to be experienced

As a say this world is not for the youngs. You have to wait until you ripe in order to have serious chances to survive

Well Isa if they are elves that are used to nmy cookies then they prefer the sesame , boiled ones and those that are made with my pure and beloved olive oil.

If I have time I want to narrate you what we do in the New Year . Because this is when the great fun is

As you understand you cannot let everyone to be the first one who will step your front door in New Year...

 

Ok!
You laught at the Deipnosophist now but in case your cookies are stolen it's me that you will call to save you with my spells...
I am your woman ( to paraphrase Leonard's Cohen song...)

Ho ho ho ho...