Pomegranate Smashing

Title: Pomegranate Smashing

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Vungelia Glyptis was a 2017 graduate of Dartmouth College. Both of her parents are Greek (from the island of Chios). Her maternal and paternal grandfathers are actually from the same village. Everyone in her house speaks Greek, but she usually speaks English with her parents. They follow very old-school customs and superstitions.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: This superstition is done on New Year’s Eve amongst family and friends. It is a fun, exciting event that the family carries out to celebrate the New Year and hope for good fortune in the year to come.

Cultural Context: In Greek culture, the pomegranate is viewed as a symbol of both fertility and prosperity. This superstition is symbolic of the prosperity and luck the family would like to have after the new year.

Item:

Many Greek families hang a pomegranate above the door of their house around Christmastime. Once it is New Year’s Eve, the family gathers together and takes the pomegranate down from the door. One person will throw the pomegranate on the ground in an attempt to smash it while the rest of the family watches. The superstition says that the more seeds come out of the pomegranate, the more luck the family will have for the year.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

A pomegranate that has been thrown at the ground on New Year’s Eve. Since a lot of seeds came out of it, the family would have good luck.

Transcript of Associated File:

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Tags/Keywords:

Greek superstitions, New Year’s Eve, Pomegranate, smash, Christmas, luck, family

Dartmouth Folklore Archive