Five Really Cool Greek Easter Traditions You Might Not Know , published by The Pappas Post on April 19, 2014. Greek Easter isn't only about red eggs and sweet bread called Tsoureki and koulsourakia.  Timeless traditions, some dating to pagan times and others from the revolution against the Turks dot the Greek countryside and islands. READ THIS INTERESTING ARTICLE

Painting Greek Christmas - published by Greek News Agenda on Dec 11, 2013 "Two pieces of art painted in the 19th century, by artists who are considered representative exponents of Greek Christmas folklore.  They both studied in Munich, and both are representatives of the Munich School and the Academic style of painting, and they were professors at Athens School of Fine Arts. The famous "Carols," painted by Nikiforos Lytras (1832-1904) is an excellent typical example of a Christmas aspect of life in the Greek countryside and the province of that time:  a group of boys, dressed in traditional clothing and carrying traditional instruments, sing carols in the courtyard of a farmhouse.  Through the open door-window you can discern a traditionally dressed woman, holding a child in her arms, listening to the young musicians and singers. . . . . " Read the rest of the article  

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Now that the holidays are nearly over, I can try to catch up on some of my posts and website updates. Here’s a post that just came from the blogger at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors – “ Citing Those Christmas Cards, Holiday E-mails, and Family Photos ”. This article is great for reminding us, once again, to check our Christmas Cards and Emails for family news and photographs. Then, how to cite them correctly in our genealogy software. Good luck with your Greek genealogy research. Georgia Keilman nee Stryker (Stratigakos) http://HellenicGenealogyGeek.com

My yiayia saved most of the correspondence that she received from Greece. This is a Christmas post card that I believe was received sometime in the 1960’s. Don’t overlook this type of treasure – someone in your family might be the one that keeps all this old “stuff”. Luckily my mother and father were not the type to throw these out. This is another great source of information – Who sent it? Do they mention any other family members? What address was it sent from? The handwriting might be hard to decipher, but sit down with your Greek-English dictionary and the Greek handwriting samples on HellenicGenealogyGeek.com – give it a try. Good luck with your Greek family genealogy research. Georgia Keilman nee Stryker (Stratigakos) http://HellenicGenealogyGeek.com