Traditions for the coming of winter - "Νικολοβάρβαρα", honey and tristrata!!

Nikolovarvara arrived again!! Of St. Barbara today, and although I have rewritten it beforeabout the folklore of this day, because the traditions of our people are inexhaustible, I will dedicate another post to her…

Saint Barbara and the smallpox:

According to one of the most prevalent traditions, “the
Saint Barbara was a little Christian, very beautiful. Her father
asked to marry her to a pagan king. The saint begged it
God, to take it out “blessing”, to ugly it. God heard her, and
with her gave the gift to cure smallpox and measles”. [Thessaly-Tyrnavos]. The variations vary.

The tradition in Samos records: “THE
Saint Barbara was a beautiful girl, which pleased many, even in
her father. He once chased her, to hurt her. She was running too
she prayed to God to save her. A rock opened and closed inside.
There the saint prayed to God to make her sick with smallpox, for
to be deformed and not chased. So it happened. When he came out of
the rock did not recognize her. Since then it has been invoked by those who suffer from
leprosy and smallpox.” (Dimitriou Loukatou, “Complementary winter and spring”)

The variation of Cretan is amazing delivery that rescues the Nikos Psilakis in his art “Folk rituals in Crete”: “In Crete they believed that “it shone
like the sun the berry, she was beautiful and everyone was teasing her. To
do not marry a pagan who married her, he gave a stone
and the stone opened and went in and stayed there to be forgotten.
Then she begged God to change her face, to make her ascetic,
let no one simmer. God blessed Blessed and she fell
we made bites like bites on the face. Time passed and no one
he did not know her. Her father did not know her either. He went to his house
dressed in gypsy and he was sorry to see her cursed
threw a piece of bread, he who did not give even his angel
water…”.

In the above tradition, Smallpox
does not appear as a disease, but as a woman who causes bites on
face and leaves permanent scars.

This belief is pan-Hellenic.
However, in Crete St. Barbara, the one who caused her illness
“holds
a rod and where he sees the smallpox he does not even let it stand. When
he saw the berry in the mirror, he was frightened and closed them with his hands
jealous eyes not to shield. He called again, Well, God bless her
thanks to cure smallpox. And God did not spoil it.”

The oleander:

THE Dimitris Loukatos notes
and a charming detail from the corresponding tradition of Naxos
connecting the saint with the oleanders!!

Barbara, asking to be done
ugly, She also regrets her beauty that she does not want to be completely lost
so “addressed to the mountains, in the woods and in the oleander and he says:

-Take it, mountains, my beauties, and forests my hair,

you too, wild oleander, take my beauty.”

And since then, Well, the oleander got its beauty and blooms beautiful flowers!!

The three layers:

“In Crete they used to praise everything three-barreled
when there was a threat of an epidemic. And the litany stopped
mandatory not only at crossroads, as was the case with all
liturgies, but also in the tristrata where they threw holy water. (Nikos Psilakis, “Folk rituals in Crete”).

But also according to Loukato, which cites elements from his work Dimitriou Archigeni, “Life in Smyrna”, “just
was manifested in Smyrna “train”, ie. smallpox epidemic (where from
fear they called it and “sweet” and “I was talking”), the slums
they especially called the pope for sanctification, reading him in the middle τριστρατου, and sanctified the surrounding area and the people.”

The honey:

And he continues his quote Λουκάτου: “And after the priest left, housewives who had young children, set up in three-barrel a low table, large and resting on it one “λεγένη” melo-galo and pancakes with slices of hot-baked bread. Three mothers had to attend. (They do not resemble the Three Degrees;). THE
one cut the bread into slices’ the other dipped each slice in
melogala’ and the third one sprinkled this gingerbread with cinnamon and gave it to him
to each child, that had been collected. And she told him to tell: ¨Honey and milk in the straw!” ie. of personalized smallpox.”

A corresponding Asia Minor version (Silence, Μ.Ασίας) quotes and George the Great (“Greek festivals and customs of popular worship”): “they take yeast and make a pie with flour, bake it in the oven and, when cooked, contain it with honey.
They then put it on a table and put the table on it
in a tricycle. The priest goes there and begs’ then cuts it
the housewife and shares it with the world. From the honey of the pie they make
cross on their door. As long as the epidemic is “blessed”
they all share sweets.”

As for Crete: “The sweet of the holiday always has honey.
In many villages of Crete, especially in what was her temple
Saint, they used to make donuts. Only to children and
the sick were given milk, because they believed that with honey and milk
smallpox is cured, so the same combination can also prevent
the disease. The adults did not drink milk, due to Lent.” (Nikos Psilakis, “Folk rituals in Crete”)

The huts:

But beyond honey and gingerbreads, Many in Greece were used to preparing kolyva or kollyvozumi as an offer.

THE George the Great, referring to Baidiri of Central Asia notes that the eve of the feast: “The neighbors at each crossroads each went for something they needed, to become the “Barbara”,
that is, the celebratory panspermia. Another went the wheat, who kicked it
there “out at the crossroads”, other sugar, the raisins, the almond,
the nut, herbs and “they were boiling it out there”. In the morning they shouted one
priest to read it and then shared it in their homes with
lattice cups.”. And it continues below:

“Kollyva, called sows, most houses in Argostoli etc. boil on the day of the feast. and

“the
they go into a canister in the evening at church. The
do to protect them from smallpox.

From the read sows
take as 40 twist and thread them with a needle into a thread, like
beads.

It thus becomes a small rosary, necklace, who put it
above the head of St.. Barbara (the mortar of the house), hung
from the same nail as the illustration. He lives there all year and he is
amulet, not to let the disease enter the house.”

Similar customs are recorded by Λουκάτος:

In the villages of Xanthi, “boil wheat, kneaded with flour, with sugar and herbs, “the barbarian”, as they say, and share them in the houses.“

In Drama, where Saint Barbara is also the patron saint, “they are raining
wheat evening, they beat it to remove the skin, boil it together
legumes, until it becomes porridge and serve it in cups.

They decorate it
surface of the porridge with patterns of walnut kernels, cinnamon, Cloves, to
the whole family eats, and in the morning they share three mugs in three houses
who have children. (If the family also has children it can be taken from
others.)“.

In the villages of Kavala, “make pulp from wheat and legumes, like kollyvozoumo.

In the wheat they throw from nine seeds (symbolic number, always sought alone) of any kind of legume: beans, lentils, chickpea, corn etc.. (memory here too of the pimples of the disease).

They add sugar to the porridge, cinnamon, almonds, walnuts (the sweetness for smallpox, which they euphemistically called it “sweet”).

Him
this thick porridge, they call him “the barbarians”, they used to take him to
church, in the morning, to operate, and then they distributed him spare parts
(in plates or mugs) in nine (again) houses.”

On the other, The Nikos Psilakis
informs us that in Crete established customary food on this day,
falling into the fast of Christmas, are the chickpeas and how “the smallest legumes (lentils, papules) they are not used that day because they resemble pimples”! And he notices how “maybe
their use in a widespread therapeutic practice (the cover of
wounds with rovithosum) to cause them to acquire and preventive
character.”

Children and other diseases:

In addition, “in addition to smallpox, Barbara was considered in Crete and its protector children from other diseases, like the chicken pox and the measles, that is, from diseases that usually occur in childhood. It is also believed to protect against their ailments eyes and from sudden deaths.” (Nikos Psilakis, “Folk rituals in Crete”)

Artillery:

But Saint Barbara is also his protector Artillery. This quality is linked to the tradition that her own father tortured and killed her (see.Our traditions and Saint Barbara) and that the Divine Judgment came upon him in the form of lightning!!

Notes the Λουκάτος: “THE
Icon of the saint shows the same with a red robe of blood
and with a glass of martyrdom, and in the background behind it the tower “of
prison” with three-window bathroom, and once the slaughter by the father
of, with lightning, who punished him.”

And: “Multiple consequences of
her general synaxary… is, on the one hand, her search
its protection in various relevant circumstances (in infectious diseases, in lightning, in fires, in war bombings, in prisons, in mine crushing, etc., and on the other hand her proclamation as a patron-protector of relevant professions and guilds, such as shooters, of firefighters, of miners, architects and builders.”

The broom:

also, a superstition reported by Great for this day is how “women do not wipe’ they even hide the broom “for children ‘is good.” (Kastoria).”

The boats:

In Drama, where the Saint is the patron saint, one also takes place
still a special custom (source: local.e-history.gr , 2The
Drama High School, Anastasis Papoutsis):

“The name of the area is associated with its church
Saint Barbara, patron saint of Drama, that exists in the area.

THE
today's church was built in 1920 over the pond. The tall
Its bell tower is reflected in the seabed, in the place they say
that there was the old church. Tradition still retains the legends
around the church building.

According to tradition, against them
In Byzantine times there was a small church in the area where today is
Lake.

The Turks, when they occupied the city 1380, they tore it down and
in its place they tried to build a mosque. With the miracle of the Saint
Barbara though, on the day of her feast the area was flooded and
the building was never completed.

The inhabitants considered it a miracle of the Saint - which they proclaimed
Patron of the city- establishing since then every eve of the feast
of, at 4 December, the following custom: many young girls in the city
they went on the eve of the feast to the vespers that were held and after
it was dusk, they lit candles on the east wall of the lake.

As much as
hour the candles were burning, the young girls prayed for health and one
good “lucky”, after St. Barbara, in addition to his protector
Artillery, was and protector of girls which protected them from tongue-eating and helped their wedding fortunes.

In fact, many of the young girls were posing lighted candles on small wooden planks
and threw them into the lake. Then they expressed their wishes and, depending
with the path that the candleboard would have, they came out real.
They considered it a failure if the candles went out, but that did not bother them so much,
as they nurtured the hope that the Saint would appear to him that night
their sleep and would fulfill their wishes.

The other day, on her day
celebration and near dawn, the young girls were gathering again in
lake and after being washed with the waters that were considered to have been sanctified
Saint from the previous night, they said goodbye to each other and gave
wishes to each other.

Then they attended the Divine Liturgy and
leaving they took with them in a special vessel, a little of the sanctified
lake water.

Today, this custom is continued by dozens of children in the city. On the eve of the feast young children they throw boats decorated with candles in the pond. There is even a competition and the best of them is awarded.

also, on the eve of the eve of the feast of the Patron Saint,
that is, on 3 December every year, a procession of the Holy Icon takes place
of St. Barbara from the eponymous church in its main streets
city.

Then the traditional one is offered “Barbara” (sweet
soup that the housewives of Drama cook every year) from the Union
Ladies of Drama and everyone heads to the lake, to throw the kids
their boats.”

Hecate:

The offerings and the sanctifications in the tristrata (trio), the gingerbreads
and honey, the polyspores, etc., indicate a direct connection to
ancient greek (pre-Christian) worship customs, a connection / continuation
where, obviously, takes place in too many of the customs and
traditions of our place.

THE three-way enclosing the timelessly important and symbolic number three and associated with other customary elements, such as the burning of the May Day wreaths of Ai Gianni…

The multigrain (the kolyva) which usually have to do with beginnings fruits and were offerings of our ancient ancestors, such as, e.g. during the pianapsia)…

The valuable and healing honey offered as “placenta” (“gingerbread“) or as “πελανός” (= viscous
flour mixture, honey and oil falling on the altars as
special offer, as a sacrifice to the gods // ομ. and burning on the altars // om.
referred to simply as the angry: Αισχ. Pers.204 “prevent
δαίμοσι…θύσαι πελανόν”, dictionary Δ. Dimitrakou), or even as “melikrato” (= alloy
what honey and milk, offered to the souls of the dead and
the subterranean gods: Οδ.κ519 “χοήν χείσθαι πάσιν νεκύεσσι, first
μελικρήτω, later I will not drink”, dictionary Ι. Pantazidi)…

According to George the Great:

"It's really hard to explain gingerbreads, the panspermia and their exposure to the "tristrato", if our knowledge of the ancient did not help us κουροτρόφο view, the Hecate.

The Greeks believed that Hecate, as ενοδία the trioditis view, it was
installed on three-tiered, where in the evening, the last days
of the month, that is, when the new moon began, placed on them
altars and under the statues food for the goddess, the so-called "One hundred" or him "One hundredth dinner".

If we consider, that this way of preparing and exhibiting
offers in St. Barbara is found especially in Central Asia and that the
the worship of Hecate prevailed mainly there (from where the trioditis
goddess was transported early to ancient Greece as a goddess of magic)
we understand which ancient deity he replaced, as his assistant
human, St. Barbara. "

But let's see what he writes briefly and Athanasios Stageiritis in “Ogygia” (or Archeology) about Hecate dinners:

Source : firiki
Diligence : Mykonos Ticker Editorial Team

Traditions for the coming of winter – “Nicolovarvara”, honey and tristrata!!

Related Articles

More on this topic

Reverend Dorotheus II

His Eminence Dorotheos B’: On Saturday 27/4, the return of the Holy Icon of Panagia Tourliani, according to custom, in the homonymous Holy Monastery

With reverence and devotion

Holy Week & ἵνα μή τῶ θανάτω παραδοθῆς: The Program of Holy Masses of Holy Week and Easter at I.M. Panagia Tourliani

Liturgical music

Easter Sunday Vespers of Agape: The verses of Easter in the I.M.N of Megali Panagia [video]