Directed by: Kavya, Anisha, Durva, Teddy

Food

• Names of foods, cooking methods, and basic ingredients haven’t changed much over time

• Bread, olives (and olive oil), and wine are important to Greek diet

• Spices used: garlic and other herbs such as oregano, basil, mint, and thyme

• Lamb, goat, poultry, beef, pork are traditional meats

Clothing

• Babies wore just cloth diapers

• Men/ Women wore linen or wool tunics and sometimes wore it over 1 shoulder

• Barefoot/leather sandals• Womens' dresses came

down to ankles• Method of wearing togas

has changed a lot over time• Cloaks/blankets made of fur

or wool

Traditions• Most Greek are extremely

superstitious and believe in paranormal phenomenon

• Tuesday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky instead of Friday the 13th

• To ward off the evil eye, they wear a blue bead charm

• Name Day celebration where they celebrate their names instead of birthdays

• If someone says something unlucky, someone else must spit three times

Religion• Greeks were polytheistic

(belief of many Gods)• Believed that Gods controlled

everything from water to the winner of a race

• Each God controlled one or two major aspects of life

• Sacrificed animals for Gods• Temples were large and

intricate • Greeks believed that Gods

lived atop Mount Olympus

Contributions• Greek philosophies known to

whole world (including Heraclitus, Pericles, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle)

• Pericles’s ideas of democracy, not to follow what people tell you to

• Life after death• International sports competition

called Olympics• Literary classics like Homer’s Illiad

and the Odyssey• Hippocrates’ Oath: moral code of

medical ethics

Social Issues

• Greece is in debt, masses not paying their taxes

• The economy is supposed to stay in recession for 2 years

• Cat scratch disease is common, which is why travelers are recommended to get vaccinations

• Rabies is also widespread due to bats

Current Events

1) Bone Relic Traffickers Arrested in Greece -Greek officials arrested a man who stole bones to sell as religious relics

2) EU urges Greece to stick to pension plan

-the pension reform is a key performance benchmark for Greece under the 3-year bailout program, the biggest ever for an individual country

Language

• The Greek language used prehistoric times, 14th century BCE

• Some dialects: Aeolic, the Doric, Thessalic, Boiotian and the Ionic

• Several dialects between different geographical regions

• One of hardest languages to learn

Fun Facts!

• Ameletita = a delicacy served in Greece and Cyprus made from grilled lamb's testicles

• Tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional way of proposing

• Ancient Greeks ate dinner lying on their sides

• If a word has a “ph” in it, probably Greek

• Yo-yo created in Greece