THESSALONIKI FRIENDS OF MUSIC SOCIETY YOUTH CHOIR: LET'S SING THE CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Carols (kalanta,) are an integral and main part of the festive events for the Twelve Days of Christmas (Christmas Eve until Epiphan) with roots that go as far back as antiquity. Then, between 15 December and 15 January – a period that coincides with the ancient month of Poseidon – the children performed the custom of ‘eiresioni’, when they sang songs in the streets holding the eiresioni, an olive or laurel branch decorated with fruits or threads of wool (eiros or erion: wool). Singing good wishes and paeans they would take to the houses the message of good luck and fertility.
We find similar songs in the Roman period, when the Romans and Greeks would celebrate the saturnalia or kronia with calends. As was natural, during the Byzantine period the official Christian church reacted strongly against the idolatrous remains, which over time it was able to integrate. The calends in fact appear to take their name from the Byzantine Calends.