Christmas preparations begin days before this great Christian holiday. In particular, the women of the village begin doing the household chores. They thoroughly clean the house, bake rusks in traditional ovens and whitewash the internal and external walls of the yards. It is interesting to note that they used to place prickly pear leaves in the paint they used so that this would acquire a blue-grey colour, which would also be preserved for a longer time period.       

On Christmas Day, all the village’s residents go to church, receive the Blessed Sacrament and then gather in the church’s foreyard to exchange wishes and kisses. Afterwards, families and friends gather in houses to have egg-lemon soup or the traditional frumenty soup. In the old years, the residents of the village used to boil water on fire before going to church in the morning, so that the water would be boiled when they returned home from church. Once they had drunk their soup, they would butcher the pig which they had raised for this day and they would place it in the mess kettle or cover it with boiling water. The pig would be placed or covered in boiling water so that its coat and skin could be removed more easily, thus allowing the villagers to use its meat to make several traditional meat products, such as “lountza”, sausages and “zalatina”.      

NewYear’sDayCustoms

On every New Year’s Eve, the housewives of the village prepare the king’s pie in which they place a “lucky” coin. This coin is believed to bring luck for the entire year to whoever finds it. On New Year’s Day, the residents of the village go to church to attend the mass. After the end of the mass, once everybody has come out in the foreyard, they exchange wishes and kisses. Later on, when they return home, everybody must enter the house with their right foot, so that everything will go well during the New Year, according to popular saying.   

On this day, people had the habit of playing various games of chance using cards, such as poker, and these games would last up to the early morning hours, both at the village’s coffee shop and in various houses. This habit continues to exist up until today.

Theophany

On the day of the Theophany, according to customs, housewives make a traditional sweet called “lokmades”, firstly for their families to eat, and secondly to throw them on the roofs of their houses so that some fictional evil creatures called “kalikantzaroi” would eat and go away.

In the morning of the same day, after the end of the mass, the priest of Kritou Terra used to go to “Kefalovryso” along with other Christians and after blessing the water, he would pass by every house and besprinkle them with holy water. The priest was accompanied by two children each of whom carried a bucket of water. In the old years, the residents of the village used to offer traditional dishes to the priest, such as “kiofterka”, sausages and raisins. Moreover, they would throw coins in the two buckets filled with holy water, which were collected by the two escorts of the priest. Actually, several residents of Kritou Terra used to visit friends’ and acquaintances’ houses to sing Carols and then celebrate together.