"John the Blessed": A New Year's Eve Tale by Photios Kontoglou

Describes a visit of St. Basil on New Years Eve, which is also the eve of his feast, years after his repose.

John the Blessed

A Tale of Photios Kontoglou

The Nativity Feast having passed, St. Basil took his staff and traversed all of the towns, in order to see who would celebrate his Feast Day with purity of heart. He passed through regions of every sort and through villages of prominence, yet regardless of where he knocked, no door opened to him, since they took him for a beggar. And he would depart embittered, for, though he needed nothing from men, he felt how much pain the heart of every impecunious person must have endured at the insensitivity that these people showed him. One day, as he was leaving such a merciless village, he went by the graveyard, where he saw that the tombs were in ruins, the headstones broken and turned topsy-turvy, and how the newly dug graves had been turned up by jackals. Saint that he was, he heard the dead speaking and saying: “During the time that we were on the earth, we labored, we were heavy-burdened, leaving behind us children and grandchildren to light just a candle, to burn a little incense on our behalf; but we behold nothing, neither a Priest to read over our heads a memorial service nor kóllyva, as though we had left behind no one.” Thus, St. Basil was once again disquieted, and he said to himself, “These villagers give aid neither to the living nor to the deceased,” departing from the cemetery and setting out alone in the midst of the freezing snow.

Silent Movie: "The Flight Into Egypt" (1903)

"The Gleaner: A Christmas Story" by Alexandros Papadiamantis

Alexandros Papadiamantis is not only considered a "Dosteovsky of Modern Greece", but one can argue he is a Charles Dickens of Modern Greece as well. Like Dickens, Papadiamantis wrote a few Christmas tales of a beneficial nature that deserve a read. One article, making the comparison between Papadiamantis and Dickens, writes:

Christmas in Greek Literature

Christmas, the great feast of Christianity, is celebrated throughout the world in different ways. Prior to the advent of technology, literature was the only way to document culture-specific traditions concerning Christmas, which eventually emerged as the ideal setting for fairy tales, short stories and novels.

Despite their differences, a multitude of works, from Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol to Nikolai Gogol’s Christmas Eve and Agatha Christie’s The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, all attest to the fact that this period of year signifies a closure, a time of resolutions and decisions on a universal level. Greek Literature includes a great body of works whose focus is Christmas, imbued by the religious spirituality closely linked with the Greek psyche.

Leo Tolstoy's "Papa Panov's Special Christmas" (animation)

Papa Panov, an old shoemaker almost too blind to thread a needle, has a dream that Jesus will visit him on Christmas Day.

He anxiously and eagerly waits all day, but his only visitors are a tramp, a roadsweeper, and a pauper woman with her cold and hungry baby.

Despite his disappointment and fading hope, Papa Panov gives them his coat, his money, his soup, and even the tiny shoes he was saving as a present for Baby Jesus.

As night falls and his special visitor still hasn't arrived, Papa Panov thinks himself a silly, old fool.

But then he has another dream, a dream which convinces him his special visitor did come after all ....

This short story of Leo Tolstoy can be read here.

Below is a cartoon based on the original tale, titled "Red Boots For Christmas":