Christmas is a special holiday. Almost all of the people celebrate it within family: there is lots of food, presents, laughs, songs, lights etc. But what about celebrating it in an amazing little Cypriot village with a local family? Well, you just have to try!
Imagine a small village, surrounded by green hills and other little villages. The air is pure and the silence is astonishing, you can hear just few noises, natural noises. Temperatures in December are a bit low, around 2-3 degrees above the zero, and the weather is quite rainy, but this won’t prevent you from having a full immersion experience.
On the 24th evening I arrived in Evrychou. I was hosted by my colleague’s family in their warm villa in this little Cypriot village. As soon as I entered the house, they welcomed me with a huge hug and offered me to sit next to fireplace where we had a nice conversation while listening to some traditional Greek songs. After a while we had a fantastic dinner with some meat (Souvla), vegetables and typical Cypriot cheese (Halloumi).
After dinner, we stayed a bit more altogether next to the fireplace and then we went to sleep.
The day after they went to the Church to celebrate Christmas (I wait for them at home) and when they came back, around 9.00 am, we sat around the table and had our first Christmas meal. The main dish was “Avgolemono” which is a traditional Cypriot soup with rise, eggs, lots of lemon and chicken, then we had of course the Cypriot salad with cucumbers, peppers, olives, feta and tomatoes, and at the end a slice of a caramel cake.
The second Christmas meal started around 2.00 p.m. and I tried a second traditional local soup “Trahanas”, made from cracked wheat flour, goat milk and halloumi. I was completely overwhelmed by this tasty soup. My friend’s dad also prepared some sheep and beef meat.
But it is not finished yet! We still had to drive back to Nicosia to attend a huge family dinner. The dinner started around 8 pm. There were at least 20 people, all members of the family.
So after a toast with a glass of wine, each one of us had to go to the kitchen with his own plate and choose from 10 different backing pans what to eat. There was meat, vegetables, bulgur, pasta, rice, rolls, soups etc. While eating, the radio was playing traditional Greek music and at a certain point someone started also to dance. So fascinating!
We conclude the night with colorful fireworks.
What an amazing experience, full of joy and colors. Loved Cypriot Christmas Time!
