As a Greek Cypriot I learnt from a very young age that in our faith Name Days play an important part, and are as important or sometimes more important that birthdays.  Now as part of Ellines United I have decided to add to this website all the names that need to observe.  As many of you may wonder where your name may have come from here is a brief run down of where your name was generated.

Most children born into the Greek Cypriot Faith will be given a name that is aligned to a Greek Orthodox recognized saint.  A name day is celebrated on the saint’s day and generally involves celebrations similar to that of your birthday (which means sweets, gifts and gatherings).  On name days friends and family come to visit and wish you well.  Greeks wish us Χρόνια Πολλά and means in English many happy years.  The gatherings can be celebrated in many ways, going out for clubs, restaurants having parties generally celebrating the Saint’s day.  We have separated all the name days according to the months in which they are celebrated, and also provided the names for each of the days.

Have you ever wondered how you got your name?  I did for years; I wondered why I was named George.  Now I was born on the 23 April which as you will see is St George’s day, to make matters worse my fathers name is George.  Now traditionally Greeks would generally name their kids after there grandparents.  Now my grandfathers name is Kyriacos, so I should have been name Kyriacos George.  This would have followed many years of tradition where parents named their kids after their grandparents, (boys after their grandfather and girls after their grandmother.  Now as you can see my grandfathers name is Kyriacos.  Middle-names were given to associate the child’s father.  Now from what you can see my parents did not follow tradition.  If we even go further in my history, my great grandfathers name is George, so my parents have given me problem for my future son.  Do I name my son George George, or do I reverse the tradition and name my son Kyriacos George or do I break tradition and choose another Saints name.  This will have to be decided between my future partner and myself.  Girls names also follow a similar standard as boys name, so if you have difficulty naming your kids how about you go back to tradition, or look through the vast Saint names below.

From a young age my parents would take us to church to celebrate this huge event.  Not only did we have to go to Church but we also had to fast.  On Good Friday, there is a sad atmosphere and the church bells ring and flags fly at half-mast.  One of my fondest memories of this night is the carrying of the Epitaphios (which represents the tomb of Jesus) around the Church.  This religious event also brings people together to celebrate Christ’s resurrection.  The resurrection of Christ starts at the midnight service and ends once the last guest has left.

Midnight mass is the most important of all religious days leading up to this big day.  This is the true celebration of Christ.  At midnight, the church turns off all its lights and all church followers light candles.  During this part of the service all the followers sing out the traditional hymn “Christos Anesti” or “Christ has risen”  After the service we all try and take the candles home and let them burn for as long as possible.