Christmas in Larnaca

Christmas (Christouyenna in Greek) is a great time to vist Cyprus.

Temperatures are normally around 20 degrees during the day and that is why many people spend their Christmas holiday in Cyprus. The sun is shining, you can relax and chill out on one of the lovely beaches and have a dip in the beautiful sea.

Christmas Traditions
Christmas is celebrated as a religious holiday and on Christmas Eve everyone goes to church and many children go from house to house singing seasonal carols (kalanda).

Cypriot families celebrate the 12 days of Christmas which end with the feast of Epiphany on 6 January.
Goblin-like spirits known as kallikantzeri make a lot of mischief during the twelve days of Christmas and many homes protect themselves by wrapping a sprig of basil around a cross and then sprinkling it with holy water. The water is then sprinkled in each room throughout the 12 days of Christmas.

Traditional Christmas Food
An enormous amount of cooking and hard work goes into Christmas as it’s one of the most joyous times of the year.

Kourabiedes

Loaves of Christopsomo (Christ Bread) are eaten on Christmas Eve and dishes such as stuffed turkey, chicken and roast lamb are traditionally eaten on Christmas day.
Also very popular are the traditional mezes and cakes such as kourabiedes (small almond cakes coated in icing sugar), melomakarona (honey cakes) and Finikia (walnut cakes).

Christmas and Pomegranates
Over the Christmas period pomegranates are eaten and also used for decoration. Pomegranates are associated with Greek mythology and Persephone and the Underworld and they are also a symbol of joyous times, good fortune, fertility and prosperity and associated with the gods Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hera.

New Year
Children receive their presents on New Year’s Day as this is the day of Ayios Vasilis (St Basil) the Greek Santa Claus.

When all the children have gone to sleep a cake (with a coin inside) and a glass of wine are placed by the Christmas Tree.

Vasilopitta Cake

Ayios Vasilis (St Basil) drinks the wine and blesses the cake and places presents around the tree. In the morning the Christmas cake (Vasilopitta) is cut and the one who finds the coin will be lucky all year.