On New Year’s Day the family go to church and the landlord has a pomegranate for the priest to bless. When they come back home, the landlord enters the house stepping on his right foot first, breaks the pomegranate, throws it down so that the seeds go everywhere and says: “A happy, healthy, joyful New Year and as many seeds has the pomegranate so much money shall we have all year round.” THE BREAKING OF POMEGRANATE by the pupils of Year 5 (E2)

On Christmas Eve, in the villages of Northern Greece, the landlord used to look for a beautiful, huge log of a pine or olive tree and dragged it home. This was called Christ’s log (Yule log) and it would burn at the fireplace during the twelve days of Christmas. YULE LOG OF MACEDONIA by the pupils of Year 5 (E2)

On Christmas Eve night all family gathered around the fireplace, the landlord would light the new fire and put Christ’s log. Landlords tried that this log would burn at every house till Epiphany. Its ash was kept because it was considered to protect the house and fields from every evil.

CHRIST’S BREAD by the pupils of Year 5 (E2) Christ’s bread is the bread that Greek housewives have prepared 2-3 days before Christmas, especially for this festivity. It is made of pure ingredients. After preparing the dough, it is decorated with embroidery that symbolizes Greek farming. There is a big cross in the middle of the bread. At Christmas noon father will cut the bread and give it to every member of the family saying “Merry Christmas”.

Baking Christ’s bread