About greek culture

GREEK CULTURE

The Greek culture has evolved over thousands of years, and it has been influenced a lot by the Roman empire, it has a lot of unique aspects in its culture that influenced our modern culture, for example, literature and theatre in ancient Greece affected modern drama. Language, food, tradition, religion, mythology and theatre. are some of the major aspects that make up Greek culture today. 

Language:

  Modern Greek language descendant of ancient Greek and the Koine language was the original basis for medieval and modern Greek. Even though the Greek language was invented in 750 BC, around 15 000,000 people speak it worldwide and it is still used in many ways today, for example, symbols in science and maths variables etc. 98% of the population in Greece speak Greece and the rest speak either Macedonian, Turkish, Aegean, Arumanian and Bulgarian. 

Traditions & Superstitions:

Greek Festival and carnival

Traditions are all related to religion or come from paganism, and the Greeks have superstitious or paranormal beliefs as well. The Greeks have many Traditional Festivities      such as Name day celebration (most people are named after religious saints, and everyone with a name deriving from a saint celebrates his on a given day of the year) , Engagement Day (celebrating engagement before marriage), Carnival(a festival that includes 2 weeks of feasting, parades and festivities), Clean Monday (first day of lent) , Easter, Greek independence day, The Ohi Day( day where the Greek military stopped Italian from invading in WW2). 

Superstitions include The evil eye(something that feels bad physically and mentally that you can catch from someone else’s jealous compliment or envy), spitting (the belief that spitting chases misfortune or the devil away), Black cats and Tuesday the 13^th. 

Religion:

Although the Ancient Greeks believed in a variety of fictional Olympian gods such as Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades etc. Greek today is pretty multicultural and has various religions like Muslims, the Catholic and Jewish, but the main religion in Greece is Christian Orthodox religion. Orthodox religion is where you have a belief in the incarnation of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection and you believe that God revealed himself in Jesus Christ. 

Food

In Greece, food is considered as an important aspect of the culture of Greece, and the Greek wines and dishes are famous for their great quality and taste that can’t be replicated anywhere else in the world.  Greece is also worldly known for its unique herbs and spices that provide such an amazing taste in every Greek dish. Food is a tradition in Greece that was dated to about 4000 years ago and is very important to the culture and history of Greece. 

History:

Greece is one of the countries which have a very rich history that is part of their culture and evolvement. Many things from the ancient history of Greece affected our modern world, for example, the Olympic games, flags and the birth of music, drama and even democracy!

Back in 5^thcentury BC, Greece was organized into just a couple independent states, that had their own laws, currency, government and dialect. But by the 2^ndcentury BC, all of that changed when Greece was conquered by Rome and Alexander the Great. although Rome introduced Greece to a whole new style, culture and way of living. Until the 19^thcentury when Greece finally declared their independence after four centuries of invasions, assassinations and turmoil, even though they faced some other conquering countries in the second world war, they are now a peaceful country and a democratic republic. 

Theatre:

The ancient Greeks created the theatre for entertainment, and there were two types, comedy and tragedy, which is where the symbol of the two masks in drama – the comedy and tragedy masks were originated from. To the Greeks, a comedy was a story or play with a happy ending while a tragedy was a story with an unhappy ending or unsolved problems. The first theatres and temples were created by the ancient Greeks and theatre and drama were a huge part of Greek culture and many famous stories such as The Persians, Oedipus and Antigone are just some of the ancient Greek dramas dated up to 429 BC that are still alive in modern drama and literature today.