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Greek Culture Facts

Greek Culture Facts
Greek culture began in Paleolithic era and has been evolving ever since. Ancient Greece was the basis of much of Western culture today, including the belief in democracy, equality under the law and even trial by jury. Greeks are responsible for introducing many literary forms and were pioneers in in many professional fields such as physics, philosophy, history, geometry, and biology. Greek culture is defined by traditions, music, language, wine, food, art, literature, and the immense passion that Greek people pride themselves on as well as their ethnic and national sense of belonging.
Interesting Greek Culture Facts:
The Greek culture is very superstitious, despite the strong religious beliefs. The superstitions and traditions in Greece vary between different villages and between different regions.
Most Greek babies are named after religious saints. On a specific day of each year the saint is celebrated by the church and anyone named after that saint celebrates 'Name Day'. The name day celebration is more important than birthdays in Greek culture and is celebrated by visits from friends and family with small gifts and good wishes.
In Greek culture a couple that wishes to be married will first be 'engaged'. The engagement is celebrated similar to a wedding, with gifts and an exchange of wedding rings. However the rings are worn on wrong hand until the real wedding takes place, at which time the couple then wears the rings on their proper hands.
On October 28th Greeks celebrate the Ohi Day. This was the day that Metaxas, the dictator of Greece at the time, refused entry into Greece by the Italians during World War II.
In Greek culture they believe that Tuesday the 13th is an unlucky day instead of Friday the 13th.
In the Greek culture, if two people say the same thing at the same time they must say 'piase kokkino' and then must immediately touch something red. Touching red is meant to break the bad omen.
Literary forms such as epic and lyric poetry, comedy, tragedy and history were introduced by the Greeks.
Ancient Greece had many theatres and temples.
Theatre itself was born in ancient Greece, in Classical Athens. The three dramatic genres of theatre satyr, comedy and tragedy, were all born there.
In ancient Greece it was believed that dance was an invention of the gods and was a religious practice.
In ancient Greece it was common for artists to paint on wooden boards. Wall painting dates back to the Minoan and Mycenaean Ages.
Ancient Greek sculpture was done in marble and stone when creating monuments. Gold monuments were less common and because they were more fragile, only fragments of these sculptures have survived.
Evidence of wine production dating back 6,500 years has been discovered in Greece. The Roman Empire held Greek wine in high regard, and it was a popular item of trade in ancient Greece.
Famous Greek philosophers include Democritus, Protagoras, Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Thales, Socrates and Plato.
The Greek language is an Indo-European language and is the Hellenic Republic's official language. Approximately 15,000,000 people worldwide speak the language.


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