Today is a great celebration for the apart of her plain Karditsa, mainly the “shantytowns” – or “were” until last year, before the devastating floods of Daniel. However, the residents, taking a “breath” of joy, will try again this year to celebrate the custom of “Gournocharas».

“Most of the customs and events of Christmas have their roots in the distant past of Greece” the educator Vassiliki Koziou-Kolofotia, researcher of local history and folklore, who was born and lived in the first years of life, emphasizes to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency in Krania, a village in the plain of Karditsa, talking about the customs and events of Christmas.

For the way Christmas was celebrated before the disasters, he describes in detail the “pig-wurst” that they had been anxiously waiting for in the past.

Vasiliki Koziou-Kolofotia emphasizes in more detail:

“This is one of the most important customs that has reached our days in some villages. By the second or third day of Christmas most of the caracoons’ houses were on their feetthe teacher tells us, because they had her piggies.

The slaughtering and packing of the pig was one ritual. From early in the morning 4-5 men and as many women, usually relatives or friends of the householders, would come down to the house to help, because a single family could not make ends meet.

All the paraphernalia for butchering the pig had been ready the day before, the pots for the hot water in which they would dip the head and legs for plucking, and the large well-boiled cauldron, where they would melt the brine to get the fat and the cigarettes.

“THE housewifewhen the pig was being slaughtered, he would take a shovel of coal, throw it incense and he gave it to the master of the house who, after incensed all those present, threw it down the pig’s neck. They believed that in this way they would have the blessing of Christ and drive away the crabs that were eating the meat and other edibles. I have strongly etched in my memory, my grandmother Vasiliki and my mother Stavroula, notes the researcher, who threw salt and incense into the fire throughout the twelve days, to keep the goblins away from our house.

As soon as the pigging was finished, the men and women left for their homes. But the men in their good clothes returned to the house that had the piggery, and there they set up a rich table with cheese pies, pancakes, grilled pork, wine from the vineyard and songs until late at night.

Nothing was thrown away from the pig slaughter. With the head and legs they made tripe, with the entrails, meat and chopped leeks they filled the sausages and with pure meat they prepared the pan.

They used the skin to make pigskin or animal samarias. With the pig’s bubble the children had a first-class ball, replacing for a while the one they usually made with cloth rags.

A portion of all this would be given to the poor, the neighbor who stole his pig and the stranger.

From the front, the “eagle” and the spleen, they made the “weather forecast“, something that certainly interested them in the animals, how they would survive the winter and also in the new crops that would be started.

They also had order and order in their consumption. First the giblets with the fries, since they don’t keep long, then the tripe, the meat with economy and the sausages, the best food, which was preserved for a long time and of course after the Lights, since the priest had to light them first ».
Also speaking, to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, the educator Vasiliki Koziou-Kolofotia, emphasizes that “people in the past, and especially those who lived in the villages, lived intensely on the days of Christmas and New Year. However, today, he explains, that in many villages of the plain of Karditsa, the custom of the piggery will hardly take shape, because people were forced to move due to the devastating floods in other areas and most of them as guests of friends or relatives until today. After all, the animals they had in their homes have drowned, including the pig they intended for Christmas.”