What does the New Year holiday mean to you? Counting down to midnight, perhaps, and raising a toast to a prosperous new year; watching the fireworks; sharing a meal with loved ones. It’s a meaningful holiday – after all, since ancient times people have celebrated new beginnings – but in our home it is not quite as momentous and joyous as Christmas.

Not so in Greek homes, though! Traditionally in Greece, New Year’s Eve is the equivalent of Christmas Eve to little children, for that is when their version of Santa Claus delivers their presents.

Santa Claus is based on Saint Nicholas of Myra, who died on 6 December 343 (in some European countries, Saint Nicholas still visits with gifts on that day). In Greece, however, it is Saint Basil who brings gifts to children. He died on 1 January 379, and so it is that his saint’s day is celebrated on New Year’s Day.

Today, many Greek families have embraced the modern Santa Claus (whose character, incidentally, is in large part the fictional creation of Clement Clarke Moore in his 1823 poem ‘’Twas the Night Before Christmas’). But Saint Basil is still at the heart of New Year’s celebrations.

On New Year’s Eve, families set a place for Saint Basil at their dinner table. According to legend, Saint Basil chooses one home at which to stay the night before his saint’s day. If your home is so chosen, it is because you are pure and good of heart. All wish to be so, and so they set a place for Saint Basil in the hope that he will stay.

It is traditional to serve a vasilopita (Basil pie), which is a sweet orange-flavoured cake in which a coin has been baked. Prayers are offered to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as a cross is cut into the cake, and then the cake is cut into slices: one for Christ, one for Mary and one for Saint Basil, and the rest for everyone present at the Saint Basil’s Day celebration. Cutting and sharing the vasilopita brings good fortune and blessings for the year ahead – especially for the family member lucky enough to find the coin in his or her slice.

The pothariko is the Greek version of what the Scots call first-footing. Supposedly, the first person to enter a home after the clock strikes midnight will bring either good or bad luck, depending on their intent and character. To ensure good luck, the Greeks choose in advance who will cross the threshold first – often the man of the house or a beloved child. In some parts of Greece the first-footer smashes a pomegranate open at the door and scatters the seeds – for luck, of course.

Gifts and good wishes are exchanged, money given to the children (this tradition is called Kali Hera), card games are played, and carols are sung (known as Kalanda). Sometimes people give good-luck charms to each other called gouri, a custom which dates back to the Ancient Greeks.

Some New Year traditions are more legend than reality these days. Once upon a time, Greeks would search for a ‘hairy stone’ (basically, a stone covered with moss), and keep this by the threshold of their home; stepping on it, apparently, brought luck. On Crete, the squill bulb (sea onion) was hung on the front door. The Ancient Greeks discovered that once uprooted, the bulb would flower and grow new leaves, and they decided this was the perfect good-luck charm for a home and a wonderful offering to Pan, god of the wild. Plus, the squill bulb was poisonous, so it would ward off evil spirits.

I love to learn about customs and traditions like these. We have so many wonderful and quirky ways to mark  important transitions and festivals in our lives. Whatever traditions you are following today, I wish you a very happy New Year.