Greek Life in Town Author:William Miller General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1905 Original Publisher: G. Newnes, limited Subjects: Greece Cities and towns Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial ... more »access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER V FEASTS AND CEREMONIES Feasts and festivals are an important element in Greek life, and the customs connected with them usually take us back to Turkish, and often to classical, times. Practical people sometimes complain that they are a hindrance to business; but they retain their hold on the people, and afford a picturesque contrast to the grey monotony of our humdrum Western existence. The most important festival for the individual is his name-day, which takes the place of the birthday with us -- an arrangement which often leads to doubt as to the age of one's friends. Most Greeks being called after some patron-saint, their name-day coincides with his festival. Thus the name-day of every Deme"trios is October 26, and that of all the Catherines is November 25 ; the Nicholases keep theirs on December 6, the countless Spiros (including almost all Corfu) celebrate December 12, the Constantines and Helens May 21. As there are several festivals of the various saints called John, a member of the innumerable army of ' Yannis,' the familiar form of lodnnes, and the commonest of all Greek names, can choose his name-day from among them; but that of St. John the Baptist on January 7 (O. S.) is the most popular. An Emanuel keeps his name-day at Christmas, while those numerous Greeks who have pagan names, such as Leonidas or Xenophon, keep theirs on All Saints' Day. Owing to the number of saints in the calendar, scarcely a day passes without one of these celebrations. In the morning the newspapers will contain lists, long or sh...« less