For traditional pre-industrial societies, Christmas was a time and religious milestone, ending a long period of fasting and beginning a new one, characterized by meat eating and a lavish feast.

One of the customs observed in Crete at Christmas, it was the custom of fried liver in the churches.

Just as the Christmas service was ending, women would line up at the door of the church with panerias or platters in their hands, to distribute the fried pig’s liver, along with a glass of wine.

The preparation had started the night before, with the women laying out embroidered towels, placing clay cups or plates inside the pans, decorating them with lemon leaves and sprigs of rosemary.

The treat was placed either next to the Beautiful Gate, or on a table.

“Those women who didn’t manage to get the fried liver to the church, they made sure to distribute it to the neighboring houses,” says writer and journalist Nikos Psilakis, adding that this custom may have been a remnant of the traditional beginnings.

“Since ancient times, people made sure to offer their gods the first births of the earth. Why not the first cooked piece of Christmas pork’?

It is not known if the custom was widespread throughout the island or only in some areas, however, although it was observed in several villages such as those on the Lasithi Plateau, it began to decline in the first post-war years, to be forgotten around the 1950s and 1960s .