The Name Game: Make Chronia Polla your mantra for the next month!
What’s in a name? Plenty, if you live in Greece. Especially at this time of the year!
According to Greek Orthodox tradition, specific days of the year are dedicated to a Christian Saint or Martyr, and celebrated accordingly with “Feast Days”.
Marking your Name Day (the Saint whom you were named after) is a much bigger deal here than blowing out the candles on your birthday cake each year.
And from now until the first week of January, there is a bumper crop of some of the most celebrated Name Days on the Greek calendar.
Get into your Greek friend’s best books by remembering to call them up on their special days to wish them “Xronia Polla” (which translates as “Many Years”). Or even better, pay them a house call to wish them health and prosperity in person, making sure to take a small gift with you such as flowers, liquor, a scented candle, book or other similar thoughtful token of a personal nature. (But don’t be surprised if you find it’s very crowded over at their house when you do!)
Athens Insider is here to help you boost your Greek Street Cred by knowing exactly who you should be wishing “xronia polla” to in the coming weeks:
November 25 – Aikaterini (Katerina), Kathy, Karen
November 26 – Stilianos, Stelios, Stella
November 30 – Andreas, Andrea, Andrew
December 4 – Varvara
December 5 – Savvas
December 6 – Nikolaos, Nikos, Nicholas, Nick, Nikoleta
December 9 – Anna
December 12 – Spiridon, Spiros
December 15 – Eleftherios, Lefteris
December 25 – Manolis, Emmanouela, Christina, Christy, Chris, Christos
December 26 – Panagiotis, Panos
December 27 – Stefanos, Steven, Stefania, Stephen
January 1 – Vasileios (Vasilis), Vaso, Vicky, Vasiliki, Basil,
January 7 – Ioannis – Ioanna or Yannis – Yanna
