Carols

The Carols are popular and praiseworthy songs, which are customary in the year, mainly on the eve of great religious holidays such as Christmas, New Year's Day (New Year's Eve) and Epiphany. The main traditional musical instruments accompanying the carols are the triangle, the lute, the daulia (drums), the tsabouna, the flute and others. Singer-songwriters are called «calanderists».

The carols are chanted mainly by children, but also by adults, either individually or in groups, walking around homes, shops, public places, etc. With the accompaniment of the traditional iron triangle, but sometimes also of other musical instruments (accordion, drum, flute, etc.)

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The main purpose of these songs besides the exchanging of wishes is the tipping either in money (today) or in products (eggs, meat, sweets e.tc) (in the past).

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The carols begin mainly with seasons greetings, and then they announce the great Christian feast that arrives and ends in wishes. A characteristic point is the language they are chanted, a language based on the ancient Greek language, evoking their direct origin from the Byzantine years.

The large number of different variants forced them to be distinguished in national or urban and local or traditional (by region). As far as Christmas carols are concerned, more than thirty variants have been counted all over Greece. Today, apart from the above, various anglo-saxon Christmas songs have been introduced, some of which have been compiled in Greek and chanted in addition to the traditional ones.

Moreover, the carols in some areas are called "Coldata" and every other time chanted the singers were adding new impromptu carols asking for financial assistance for a social purpose (eg the erection or repair of a temple) or giving

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advice to the rulers in scribble remarks. These are relevant to "mantinades" of Crete or "kotsakia" of the island of Naxos.

The lyrics of the Christmas carols usually sung by children in big cities on Christmas Eve, is a short version of the original one that is much longer. During the period of Crowned Democracy in Greece, the custom of reciting the carols by the guards of the palace before the Kings was established to match similar customary events to other European Royal Houses. This custom continues up to this day with the carols being chanted by traditional groups and choirs from all over Greece before the President of the Greek Republic or the leaders of various political parties.

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LINKS: https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9A%CE%AC%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B1

Paganeli Vasiliki – Sackey Irene Maria

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