Christmas - New Year's Eve
Many of the following customs have their
beginning before the Turkish possession.
In Christmas, besides the
necessary
pig
sticking,
the
Christ
breads, the cookies and the almond toffees,
since
the old years, the carols – during the Christmas
Eve- were the precursors of the celebration
of
Christmas. At that time,
they
didn’t decorate a “tree”- this came to Greece
in 1850 by the Bavarians of Othonas- they
decorated,
though, every kind of floatable with lights.
That’s why today we decorate small ships
on
land. Since 1868 when the Cretans
refugees
had come to Poros, the “skaltsounia” were
also
added in the delicacies.
On the New Year’s Day besides the carols,
the St Vasileios pie with the coin, the “melomakarona”
(candies with honey) and the sugared short-breads,
necessary was the “first foot”, which everybody
wanted to be made by a little kid, who was
naïve and pure. And the kid had to go with
a pomegranate, which the kid was breaking,
so that the house will be full like the pomegranate,
or a rock, so that everybody would be strong
like it. Of course, the homemakers were giving
candies and money to the child.
During the old years, a big
importance
was given to the hunting of the goblins that
for twelve days, as they believed (Christmas
- the celebration of the Lights) were excruciating
not only the humans but their animals too.
That’s why after the benediction of the waters,
they were taking holly water and were sprinkling
every edge of their buildings, the people and
the animals also.
Halloween
Halloween
was celebrated in Poros since the very old
times and the disguised people were the main
characteristic of each era. Since the Halloween
feast started, people were dressing either
like Africans, or like Eptanesians, or like
islanders, or they were wearing colourful
clothes and self-made masks, they were going
out on the streets in groups but there had
been never organized a carnival like the
one of Hydra, which is dated since the era
of 1700 (it revived in 1974). Since 1999,
the Municipality of Methana organizes a carnival
with a significant success.
This fact doesn’t
mean though that Halloween wasn’t celebrated
with cheer and dancing. But the celebration
was more familial, a point of view that dominated
due to the Arcadian influence.
Many
People from Chios, Smyrne and minor Asia
in general, “brought” the custom of the “bell
people”- disguised people with bells- but
they didn’t draw the attention.
So,
every kind of disguised people was a pleasant
parenthesis but was not the reason for a mass
celebration. Many Moraitans used to smudge
themselves with smoke from the fireplace.
However,
the inhabitants in Tsikno-Thursday were overcooking
roast meat so that I would be smelled in
the neighbourhood and were celebrating the
“meaty” Halloween and then the “cheesy”,
when the young men were stealing macaroni
and were putting it under their pillow to
dream of with which girl were thy going to
get married.
The
Halloween of the decade of 1960 included
except of many other customs that are still
preserved, disguises of young boys and girls,
who were 15 until 25 years old, in Pounta,
in Saint George and Mprinia, where they were
dressed like Apachides of Athens, gypsies,
signori, etc.
They were also singing various
Halloween songs, like the “smelly lemon”,
“listen to me to tell you about a great love”,
these days have it”, “on a new boat I embarked”,
etc.
Many times they were making a “maypole”.
Those days, the youngest of the youth were
also making the air balloons. A light garland,
a pad of thin colourful paper and a cotton
waste sprinkled with petrol or inside a can,
which they were lighting up and were letting
it to rise high. And they were competing
who was going to construct the biggest one,
and who was going to take it higher.
The day of the Uptake
On the
Day of the Uptake, the inhabitants were going
to the beaches for the “Hairy”, a rock with
seaweeds which the girls were putting under
their bed, so that they would dream the men
who were going to get married with. In parallel,
they were catching sea urchins, limpets,
crabs and other sea species. Also, they were
collecting sea water and were sprinkling
the house and singing in the same time:
“Outside
the fleas and the bedbugs, inside the hairy
experience”.
Also,
during the Day of the Uptake, they were collecting
chamomile for the whole year and were putting
out and were spreading out the entire trousseau
on their balconies, so that they would be
aerated
Easter
During
Easter times,
children
were telling the carols on the eve of Lazarus,
eating
fish on Sunday and distributing branches
from palm leaves and
flowers at the church. About the traditions
of Easter,
the children were coming out to tell the
Christmas
carols on the morning of Good Friday, then
the decoration of the Epitaph, the Procession,
the red eggs, the Resurrection and the roasting
spits.
From
the old days the epitaphs of the four churches
of St. George, St. Constantine, the Annunciation
and Progymnastiriou meet in the main square
in the Port singing 'The generations are all
...». Another tradition of Good Friday
was the hanging and burning of Judas.
Other customs ...
On
the first day of May, the famous garland was
created, on which the Minor Asians and mostly
the Smyrneans, were also putting garlic so
that the evil eye could be avoided. Many girls,
of Arvanetian or Megaritian background, were
giving on that day a garland to their fiancés,
with flowers that had gathered from house
to house.
On the
4th of June, was celebrated in Poros, with
a big festival, the feast of the Mother
Mary the Merciful in Plaka, a celebration
that nowhere else is being held. From the
Eve of this day, clarinets, violins, side
drums, drones, dulcimers were making an extreme
performance, while the pigs and the lambs
that were roasted on the roasting jack, were
having an amazing smell, which was reaching
to a long distance. People were having fun
with the folkloric songs; they were eating
and drinking, while various street vendors
were promoting their trade.
This
custom
lasted
until the year of 1960, after then it started
to fade. Nowadays, an effort is
being
made to revive this custom. Relative festivals
were
held in Saint
Panteleimonas
of the lemon tree forest, during
the
day of the Savior and on the day of the celebration
of Mother
Mary.
However, the festival of
Plaka
was more picturesque and interesting because
it had uniqueness
The jump over the fire
of Saint John is a
custom
that
we see to be held every now and then these
days by people of younger age. But during the
old
days, it concerned both young and older people.
Because after the jump of fire, the girls were
taking a vessel and were filling it up with
from three faucets with the “still water”.
There calling it like this because from the
moment they started until the time they would
turn back, they shouldn’t speak to anyone.
After
that,
they
were putting the “rizikaria” into the vessel,
various objects with which they would see their
destiny. They were covering it with
a
white cloth and on the day of Saint John, a
first born young woman was taking the objects
one
by
one out of the vessel and like Pythia did,
she was telling the future of the interested
woman.
Many
times, the attitude was satiric. So, that’s
how
the phrase “all these I am hearing in Klidonas”
survived.
Nowadays, the Municipality of Poros organizes
the event “the jump of fire”.
On the day of the Cross,
the
villagers were taking to the church a part
of the seeds that were going to sow during
the first rains, so that the priest would bless
them.
Then, they were mixing them with other seeds
that had had left on the icons and were the
last ones of the previous harvest, and then
with all the seeds that were going to sow (it
was of no matter if they were wheat, barley,
pulse etc).
The
Peloponnesians had also
transferred
the custom of the roasting pan: on the day
of the Cross, the children of the neighbourhood
were taking a copper roasting pan, were going
to the priest, he was giving a soul cake to
them, they were cutting it in small pieces
and the priest was sprinkling the pieces with
“anama” (pure wine) and oil. Then, the children
were going from house to house and they were
sprinkling the seeds of each family with these
pieces.
The Minor Asians brought
also
with them the custom of “rags”. When they wished
for someone to get well, they were hanging
rags from their clothes on a tree near the
temple. However, this custom wasn’t kept in
Poros,
but it survives in other places until today.
The
Peloponnesians,
when
wanting to beg Christ and the Saints to cure
someone of their relatives, were hanging
various
clothes on the icons. After the clothes were
blessed, they were putting them in
auction
and the benefits were given to the church.
The funeral
customs haven’t been changed much today relatively
to what was happening during the old years.
The only ones that haven’t been kept are the
putting down or the flipping of mirrors and
photographs as well as the smash of the glass
plate when the dead body exits the house.
Wedding
and
its
customs
Much before the year of
the 1821 and until 1920, the girls of Poros
were married with the man that their father
was choosing. As far as the customs of the
wedding is concerned, there were various:
Arvanetean,
moraitean, and insular in some cases, depending
on the place of origin. Although the moraitean
prevailed.
The engagement was happening
before the wedding and this was the time that
the groom was going to the bride’s house with
gifts. Then and until the wedding, which was
happening too soon though, the groom wasn’t
allowed to see the bride again. At that time,
the weddings weren’t happening during the
Lent. And almost all the weddings were happening
during the summertime. The marriage was happening
always on Sunday. From the beginning of the
wedding’s week, the friends of the bride,
who were unmarried and pure as it was supposed,
were helping her to be prepared. To prepare
her wedding dress that was slowly evolving,
with songs, like: "Today shines the sky,
today shines the day, today the eagle marries
the pigeon". And many others.
On the previous
days, or even on the same day, the “proikia”
(clothing) of the bride were delivered to
the "proikologous",
after they had been exposed for three days
to the bride’s family house in order to be
seen by her relatives. The "Proikologoi" that
were receiving the “proikia”, were delivering
to the bride gifts from the groom. When they
did not transport the “proikia” to the house
of the groom, where the bride would stay,
they were leaving them at the door and the
assembled people were sprinkling them with
rice and were singing "my well-destined
Bride”, etc.
The
marriage (the crowning) was happening in the
house of the bride, where the groom was going
with his whole family, his friends, the people
he invited, with the escort of an orchestra.
If the house was near they were going in procession,
on foot. If it was far, they were going by
decorated horses that another one nice decorated
horse was following, which was without a rider.
This was intended for the bride in order to
take her to the house of groom. On the front,
running on a horse, the “sycharikiaris” (the
man who announces the congratulation news)
was going, with a scarf – flag on a stick
with cross, in order to announce that "they
were coming".
After
the crowning, a very big fest was held, and
also the relative gunfires were hit. On the
evening, the groom was taking the bride and
they were leaving. However the feast was continuing
for three days, whenever in the house of the
groom, and whenever in the house of the bride.
These were the so-called "epistrofia".
During
that time, they weren’t distributing bonbonnieres.
If there were bonbons, these were on the disk.
In any case, since those years, the free girls
were taking bonbons from the disk in order
to put them under their pillow. The relatives
were giving meat, pies and other things for
gifts. The narrowest relatives should be bringing
an entire lamb. The groom and the bride were
giving shoes to their parents and their parents-in-law
for a gift.
Later when the fear that
the groom may took the bride without marriage
and left was absent, the marriages were also
held in the house of the groom. And when after
the tear of 1920 the marriages began to hold
exclusively in the church, if the houses were
near, the groom and the bride were going to
the temple in procession on foot, with the
orchestra playing. And after the wedding,
they were firstly going at the house of the
bride and then at the groom’s house and had
fun. An irrefrangible custom for many years,
in Poros also, was the custom of the demonstration
of the bloody sheet, or the underwear of the
bride - which for this case was open between
the legs - after the first night of the marriage.
This was proving her purity
and she would never wash them. She was having
them as a proof. Of course, they may not be
exposed in common view, but the mother-in-law
had the obligation or even better, the right
to
see them and to realise. And it was a big
shame, if the bride was not pure. They were
exposing her as a prostitute and were sending
her away. And such cases did exist. But also
the opposite did exist. They hided it, but
they gave a bigger “proika” to the groom,
the “panoproiki”
Birth of a child
Graphic
were the customs that were relative to the
birth of a child (1800). The midwife was carrying
the stool of birth – the selli - and when
she was reaching at the house, she was opening
the doors, the windows, the drawers; she was
unlocking everything so that the child would
come out easily. And those who helped should
say that they saw an oil man on the street
and his oil was poured, so that the baby would
slip easily. If the labour was difficult,
they were calling for the spouse, who was
striking three times the ridge of the mother-to-be
with his shoe and he was saying: "I was
the one that charged you; I am the one that
I unload you". After the birth, they
were wrapping the mother with cloth, from
the breast to the kidneys, in order not to
get swelled. For eight days she wasn’t allowed
to see the stars and when she was getting
off the bed she was stepping on an iron. Also,
they were wrapping the newborn, being careful
not to wrap (!) any bad thing in, and were
giving amulets to it.
