Title: Bride Leaving the Home

General Information about Item:

• Genre: Customary Folklore: Superstition

• Language: English

• Country: Greece

Informant Data:

• Mary Wallenmeyer is a 55 year-old woman from Shermans Dale, PA. Both of her parents, her two sisters, and her one brother were born in Greece. Her parents were raised in a small village in the mountains of central Greece. Her father came to the U.S. first and worked for two years so he could bring the rest of the family to America. She was born a year after her parents were reunited in the U.S., and her younger brother was born seven years later. Her father and his siblings are deceased, but she still have cousins from his side of the family that live in Greece. Her mother has six siblings still living in Greece along with their families.  Growing up, Mary and her family spoke Greek at home and attended Greek classes. Her husband and children do not speak the language fluently, but they do understand some of it. Her family belongs to the Greek Orthodox church, which she says “ helps keep the ‘Greek’ alive in [their] lives.” Their family still prays in Greek and cooks many Greek foods. They are very proud of their Greek heritage.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: This superstition only applies to a bride on her wedding day. The family who help her get ready participate in the superstition by being sure to leave before her, but otherwise it mainly applies to the bride herself.

• Cultural Context: There are multiple superstitions around weddings, as they are a very important event for Greeks. Marriage is one of the seven sacraments of the Greek Orthodox Religion and therefore is very ceremonial and traditional. Especially in earlier times in Greece, it was very important to a family that the daughters be married off, so any superstition involving the bride is critical.

Item:

• On a bride’s wedding day, the bride had to be the last one out of the house. And along with that, the bride was supposed to be fully dressed for the wedding when she stepped out of her “singles” home for the last time. As a bride, she is starting a new life, and it is important that she closes the door on her old life so she can start her new life fresh. Without doing this, her new life will not truly have started and will not feel right. The grooms sometimes do it too, but it is much more significant for the brides.

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

• None

Transcript of Associated File:

• None

Informant’s Comments:

• None

Collector’s Comments:

• None

Collector’s Name:

• Collected and published by Katie Spanos

Tags/Keywords:

• Greek superstitions, bride, wedding, home, new life, marriage

Title: Pomegranate Smashing

General Information about Item:

• Genre: Customary Folklore: Superstitions

• Language: English

• Country: Greece

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:

• None

Informant’s Comments:

• None

Collector’s Comments:

• None

Collector’s Name:

• Interviewed by Carmen Braceras
• Published by Katie Spanos

Tags/Keywords:

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

Title: Vasilopita

General Information about Item:

• Genre: Customary Folklore: Superstition

• Language: English

• Country: Greece

Informant Data:

• Lia Constantine is a ’21 Dartmouth student from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Her Greek heritage is very much part of her identity. She relates to the family in the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” in a lot of ways. It is also something she has grown up with and that her parents and grandparents are very proud of, so she has inherited that pride. Both her parents are 100% Greek. They were both born in the U.S., but her dad lived in Greece for a period of time.
• Katie Spanos is a ’20 student at Dartmouth College. She is from Hummelstown, PA. Her dad is Greek, but her mom is not. Her dad’s family comes from a small village called Neohori, and she still has a lot of family there as well as some in other parts of Greece. Her and her siblings do not speak Greek, but her dad and aunts and uncles will speak Greek with her Yia-Yia. Their family follows most Greek customs and holidays, mainly because her entire family is Greek Orthodox.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The Vasilopita is celebrated on New Year’s Day either at a family member’s house among the entire extended family or at church on the Sunday before New Year’s Day among all of the parishioners of the church. It is done to celebrate the New Year and wish for good luck and prosperity.

• Cultural Context: This superstition honors Saint Basil and the idea of the Vasilopita comes from a story about him. The story goes that thieves stole riches from people, and Saint Basil caught him and had to return the riches to the people in a fair way. He decided to ask women to bake small cakes with the valuables inside and handed out pieces to the people, so that some pieces had valuables and others did not. This explains the idea of putting the  coin into the cake.

Item:

• Each year, all of the members of a family or a church gather for New Year’s Day celebrations. Someone, often the woman of the house or the Philoptochos of the church, will take the responsibility of baking the Vasilopita cake and hiding a coin somewhere inside. If at the church, the priest will cut the Vasilopita to give to church members, and if at the home, the head of the household will cut it. The first piece is “given” to Saint Basil, the second to Jesus, and the third to the Virgin Mary. The pieces are then given to the head of the house and then in order of age from oldest to youngest. In the church setting, the pieces are given out to the Priest, the Parish Council President, the Choir Director, the chanters, and other important people before the rest of the church members. Once everyone has received their piece then you are allowed to eat. Whoever finds the coin in their piece announces it to the family or church and it is said they have good luck for the entire year.

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

Father Michael Varvarelis with the Sunday School leader at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania handing out pieces of the Vasilopita.

Interview with Lia Constantine

Transcript of Associated File:

• Lia Constantine: “So we make this bread called Vasilopita and you put a coin inside the bread and you cut a piece out for your house and the cat or the dog and you do one for God and one for your dad and mom and then the kids and then whoever when you cut that piece of bread the coin lands on, that person is going to have the luckiest year of their life. I’ve never gotten it… I haven’t really had the luckiest year of my life yet I guess.”

Informant’s Comments:

• None

Collector’s Comments:

• Two informants talked about this superstition, Katie Spanos and Lia Constantine. Both of them were interviewed in person.

Collector’s Name:

• Interviewed by Jessica Valvano
• Published by Katie Spanos

Tags/Keywords:

• Greek Superstitions, New Year’s Day, Vasilopita, Coin, Luck, Church, Family