Research Blog: Greece and Rome culture

            Continuing with my research project, this blog will be about the information about the Greece and Roman culture I have found out about. What I had mostly found was the religions, festivals, holidays, traditions and daily life of the people, with little about the myths and Mesopotamian culture. Also while researching I noticed that in all of what I looked up had their origins inside the actions they took, and almost nothing about the precise history of it. So with what I have, I will talk about Greek Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Easter, Saints’ Day, the daily life of Greece and Rome, and the myths and Mesopotamian civilization.

Religions

Greek Orthodox Church

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral

Before we get into any of the holidays, festivals, traditions and culture, first we need to know about the religion. In both of these countries, religion takes a large part in everything the country goes through, such as economics, businesses, communications, holidays, and entertainment. For Greece, they have the Greek Orthodox Church. This is “A branch of Eastern Orthodoxy, which formally broke with the Western (or Roman Catholic) Church in AD 1054” (gotquestions.org). Although the Greek Orthodox Church is different with Catholicism, they have many practices that are similar such as the veneration of saints. Other practices that are not in the evangelical Christianity would be the Holy Communion, Salvation, using Scripture, and having feasts and holy days.

Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

Also known as the Catholic Church, with more than 1.27 billion members around the world it is the largest Christian church. The church is led by the pope, the Bishop of Rome, and it is well known by the sacred tradition and seven sacraments within Western Christianity. What the church teaches is that Jesus Christ had founded one true church, and the pope was the successor of Saint Peter and the bishops there were the successors of Christ’s apostles. The current head of the church is Pope Francis, who was elected in 2013, and there is also a website of it called ‘Holy See’.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church)

Festivals

Greek Easter

Greeks roasting lamb meat

Rather known as Orthodox Easter, it is one of the most well-known and important holidays and festivities in Greece. This is celebrated for a whole week called The Holy Week, and it has Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday as public holidays. This year’s Holy Week started on April 29^th, with Easter Sunday on May 1^st. Next year, in 2017, Easter Sunday will be April 16^th, starting on April 14^th. On Orthodox Good Friday, in the morning the girls and women would decorate Christ’s funeral bier replica (or “epitaph”) with flowers, which would altogether become “The Epitaph Mass.” Good Friday is a day to mourn for the dead and set up flags everywhere in remembrance of them. Next, on Orthodox Easter Saturday, known as The Resurrection or “Anastasis”, people would gather at churches and squares of the village with big white candles and light it up at 11pm, and at midnight would celebrate while offering salutation. Orthodox Easter Sunday would mainly be about the Easter Sunday dinner, where in honor of the lamb of God a feast of lamb would be served. After all the festivities during the week, Orthodox Easter Monday would be a public resting day for all the people.

(Source: http://publicholidays.gr/easter/)

Rome All Saints’ Day

Children lighting candles on All Saints' Day, in Banja Luka

            “All Saints’ Day is solemn holy day of the Catholic Church celebrated annually on November 1^st” (catholic.org). Pope Boniface IV had made this day along with the All Souls’ day which is on November 2^nd in 609 AD. It is day that is dedicated to the saints of the Church, and although it does involve the people who had become saints this day focuses on the known saints of the Catholic Church. There are all kinds of traditional practices in the world, such as the performance “Don Juan Tenorio” in Portugal, Spain and Mexico, while across Europe flowers are left upon the graves to commemorate. Candles instead of flowers are lit on the graves in eastern Europe, and in the Philippines graves would be repaired and painted by the family members. A similar holiday is in Mexico, called “The Day of the Dead”, which is from October 31^st to November 2^nd to go along with both American and Catholic days.

(Source: http://www.catholic.org/saints/allsaints/)

Culture

Greece

            So there a few things that I found interesting about Greece’s culture in daily life. One would be that they have a concept of “Philotimi,” which are gatherings considering public honor, social responsibility, and hospitality and has the goal to attain the happy and relaxed feeling “kefi.” It would be parties with all the liveliness, music, eating, drinking, dancing, but without become drunk. Another would be that during funerals the mourners would eat boiled wheat with sugar and cinnamon. On New year which is celebrated on St. Basil’s Day, a cake with a coin hidden inside would be baked called “vassiloptia,” and whoever got the coin was known to receive good luck from finding it. Last, as a mentioned right above, hospitality is very crucial to the Greeks, considered a pleasure and a responsibility. Mostly, there would be generous hosts welcoming guests (including foreigners) receiving only token protests, but nowadays has decreased due to deluge of travelers or improper behavior of tourists.

(Source: http://traveltips.usatoday.com/social-culture-greece-17532.html)

(Source: http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Greece.html)

Rome

            Rome has a few things in common with Greece, while also having its own culture. Similar to the gatherings “Philotimi”, the Romans have those too but mostly with their families. Their culture considers family a very important factor in their life, and also still prefer the extended family rather than the nuclear family in the west. Due to this, there are also a number of small or mid-sized businesses which are run by single families. Another would be that in the food culture, which also occupies a large part in Italy, that each area eats their own special Italian dish. In the North there would be fish, potatoes, rice, sausages, pork, and cheese, while in the South tomatoes, capers, peppers, olives and olive oil, garlic, artichokes, eggplant and ricotta cheese take place.

(Source: http://www.livescience.com/44376-italian-culture.html)

So far we’ve looked over the most well-known information about Greece and Rome’s culture. One thing we haven’t looked at is the myths and legends of those cultures, however this is difficult because they had religious or educational purposes, but mostly just for the entertainment too. So it is hard to look for any current culture fact which is relevant to the myths and legends. Also, the Mesopotamian civilization would have a lot in common with these cultures, however, as it existed such a long time ago and also does not only connect with only Greece and Rome but with also different countries, it is difficult to find any traces of it in the culture of today.