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4 THE SHEPHERD • DECEMBER 2019 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO Wearepleased toannou LevelofSt. JohnChryso contestants. Stefanwill SaintNicholasRanch in participate in thisbeauti everyyear to talkabout to thank FatherAndre andde nitely add value DianaFowler,Christin priorMetropolis nalist GREEK LANGUAGE SCHOOL G S B: On November 9th all of our Friday Greek School students met in church with Fr. An- drew for a short prayer for our Greek School Blessing “Αγιασμό” [photo]. At the end of the service Father Andrew blessed and sprinkled each one of our students with holy water. H e last month of the year is a time to re- member all the good memories of the year, but also to welcome a new beginning. With the holiday spirit, I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart all the parents, teach- ers, students and friends from our Greek School Community for their collaboration, support and love. C C: Our Christmas Community Music Pro- gram will take place on Friday, Decem- ber 13 at 7 pm. in the church hall. Our youth choir and Greek School will be performing a wonderful Christmas con- cert. We can’t wait to see you all there! C,   : Caroling is part of the Greek Christmas tra- dition. A carol is called Kalanta or Kalanda in Greek. Kids go out caroling on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Epiphany Eve (Jan- uary 5th). ey go door to door singing car- ols, o en bring along triangles to play while singing. e playing is di erent than playing the triangle as an instrument. ey bang the triangle making a repeated sound – not nec- essarily to the beat of the song. Kids are o en given small amounts of money or Christmas sweets for caroling. At the end of every carol the kids add this verse to wish the landlord prosperity: Σ’ αυτό το σπίτι που ᾽ρθαμε, πέτρα να μη ραγίσει κι ο νοικοκύρης του σπιτιού χρόνια πολλά να ζήσει. (In this house we have come no stone may ever crack and the landlord may live for many years.) According to Music Library of Greece, this tradition of caroling goes back to Ancient Greece: e Greek word Kalanda (carols), derives from the Latin calendae, which means the rst day of the month. In Ancient Greece, there were various texts comparable to the contemporary Kalanda, which contained praises for the landlord and good wishes for the prosperity of the household. At that time, children sang carols while carrying boat mod- els in honor of the god Dionyssos. Sometimes they carried branches of olive or laurel upon which they hung their tips and gratuities. How wonderful that this tradition dates back so far yet kids still partake in it today! With Best Wishes for a Wonderful Hol- iday Season to you and yours! Καλά Χριστούγεννα! Athena Kotinopoulos Georges, M.Ed. Greek Language School Director San Diego Greek Language School athenakotinopoulos@gmail.com 619-992-4452 Attending college or university is something a lot of young adults look forward to. Here at St. Spyridon Philoptochos we want to make sure that our college students, whether staying here in San Diego or going away, don’t lose their connection to St. Spyridon. With that in mind, we have created “College Connection”. College Connection will reach out to our college students a couple of times per year with inspiring notes, care packages, etc. to let those students know that we are cheering them on from home. If your son or daughter is currently attending college (including community college, undergraduate or grad- uate school), we would like to reach out to them with some love from their St. Spyridon Philoptochos family. Please send their postal mailing address while they are in college, email address and cell phone number, as well as the name of the school they are attending, and what year of school they are in to Michelle Defelippi at mdefelippi@san.rr.com. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Michelle at the above email or (858) 695-9772.