'Kala Christougenna'....Merry Christmas in Greek........Christmas Around the World

On Christmas Eve, children, especially boys, often go out singing 'kalanda' (carols) in the streets. They play drums and triangles as they sing. Sometimes the will also carry model boats decorated with nuts which are painted gold. Carrying a boat is a very old custom in the Greek Islands.
If the children sing well, they might be given money, nuts, sweets and dried figs to eat.
Christmas Trees are becoming more popular in Greece, but they aren't traditional. Instead most houses will have a shallow wooden bowl with a piece of wire is suspended across the rim. A sprig of basil wrapped around a wooden cross hangs from the wire. Some water is kept in the bowl to keep the basil alive and fresh. Once a day someone, usually the mother of the family, dips the cross and basil into some holy water and uses it to sprinkle water in each room of the house. This is believed to keep the 'Killantzaroi' (bad spirits) away. The Killantzaroi are meant to appear only during the 12-day period from Christmas to Epiphany (January 6th). They are supposed to come from the middle of the earth and get into people's house through the chimney! The Killantzaroi do things like putting out fires and making milk go off. Having a fire burning through the twelve days of Christmas is also meant to keep the Killantzaroi away.

Every December, in Aristotelous Square in the city of Thessaloniki (which is the second biggest city Greece) a huge Christmas Tree and three masted sailing ship are put up. It's a popular tourist attraction.

Going to a Midnight Mass Service is very important for most Greeks. After the service people can go home and end their Advent fast.
The main Christmas meal is often Lamb or pork, roasted in an oven or over an open spit. It's often served with a spinach and cheese pie and various salads and vegetables. Other Christmas and new year foods include 'Baklava' (a sweet pastry made of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey), Kataifi (a pastry made from a special form of shredded filo dough and flavored with nuts and cinnamon), Theeples (a kind of fried pastry). Another popular Christmas dessert are melomakarono, egg or oblong shaped biscuit/cakes made from flour, olive oil, and honey and rolled in chopped walnuts.
A traditional table decoration are loaves of 'christopsomo' (Christ bread). It's a round sweet loaf and the crust is often decorated with what the family do for a living (if you're a fisherman there would be fish, etc.).

In Greek Happy/Merry Christmas is 'Kala Christougenna'.
In Greece, presents are often brought to children by Aghios Vassilis / Άγιος Βασίλης (Saint Basil) on the 1st January. (NOW do you understand why they use a cross of basil to bless their homes?)

HONEY GLAZED GREEK ROAST LAMB

Ingredients

• 1 leg of lamb, 1.2 kg (45 ounces) or more
• 1.5 kg potatoes (50 ounces)
• 4 cloves of garlic
• fresh rosemary
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 100g mild mustard (3.5 ounces)
• 100g honey (3.5 ounces)
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp black sugar (optionally)
• 1 1/2 glass of dry white wine
• 4-5 tbsps olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 180C. To prepare this super easy Greek roast lamb recipe, place the lamb in a large baking tray and scar the surface of the meat with a knife. Make little holes (8-9) on the surface of the lamb, using a sharp knife.
2. Chop the garlic into 3-4 pieces each clove. Fill each hole on the lamb with some garlic and some rosemary. Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Pour into the baking tray 1 and 1/2 glass of white wine and cover with aluminum foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hour.
3. The potatoes and the lamb cook at different times, so you should add the potatoes later.
4. After 1 1/2 hour remove the baking tray from the oven, unwrap the aluminum foil and add the potatoes (cut into wedges and seasoned well with salt and pepper). Drizzle with 1-2 tbsps of olive oil. At this point, there should be enough liquid remaining into the baking tray.
5. Place some aluminum foil on the baking tray and bake for 1 more hour.
6. Turn the pan out of the oven and unwrap the aluminum foil. At this time, there should be a little wine still remaining in the pan and your Greek roast lamb should be almost cooked, but not colored.
7. Prepare the glaze for your Greek roast lamb. Into a microwave, heat the honey, until it becomes liquid. Blend the honey with the mustard and lemon juice. With a cooking brush, brush the glaze over the lamb and the potatoes. Sprinkle with some black sugar (optional), so that the meat becomes more crunchy.
8. Place back into the oven (uncovered) and bake for 20-25 more minutes until the lamb is nicely coloured. Let the meat rest for 5 minutes before serving.

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