ИСТИНА

There are many sources for studying the Modern Greek calendar rites and customs, which contain materials mainly from XIX-XX centuries. The most famous of these sources is considered the book by G. Megas "Greek calendar customs," published in 1956. Some of the customs and rites described in the book have remained fairly stable in the modern Greek world till nowadays, some of them have changed under the influence of internal and external social, historical and political factors, or completely disappeared. There are several trends of transformation of the Greek calendar rites. Firstly, some calendar rites are transformed due to the change of settings on undergoing the transition from traditional peasant to modern urban culture. For example, on the day of St. Basil (January 1) a special cake is baked with a coin inside with the subsequent traditional divination pointing at the "lucky of the year" in the family. Now this custom has become a part of modern New Year celebration, and the production of coins for this special St. Basil’s cake, as well as ready-made cakes with the coin already placed inside have become a part of business process. On the other hand, there is a strong tendency to "reborn" forgotten traditional culture rites, which appears at different levels - from public holidays organised in folk style by the authorities to creation of folklore societies by enthusiasts who independently reconstruct a calendar custom or any other traditional ritual. An example of this is a reconstruction of the ritual calendar divination Klidonas (June 24), which takes place in some Greek villages. A Modern Greek folk festival can also be used as an additional incentive to attract tourists, such as the St. Constantine and Helen’s day or Anastenaria with the firewalking ritual, which is held in Greek Thrace.