Μαγικά Χριστούγεννα – A Magical Greek Christmas

Get into the Christmas atmosphere and listen to this Greek Christmas Story, (or podcast no. 7),  on various Podcast channels listed below, as well as on YouTube.
Teacher Eva reads for you the story about the magical Christmas of her friend Amalia in the beautiful city of Nafplion.
(This story is written by Omilo, and is part of the monthly Easy Greek Podcasts Stories, recorded in the Omilo-school in Athens )

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Listen to the Greek text, improve your listening skills, while learning more about Saffron.
Saffron is a delicious spice coming from the Krokos (crocus) flower, is growing in Greece and known since ancient times! Saffron is being used in many different ways: for its flavor in the kitchen, for its color in cosmetics and paint, for its healing properties in the pharmaceutical sector. Cleopatra saw the value of using saffron in cosmetics, in the Old Testament, it was mentioned because of its essence and Aeschylus described it as a way to dye fabric.
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It may be that nowadays the electric car makes quite the impression and is funded by big industrial firms, but in Greece, it was already constructed for the first time 45 years ago! During the summer months, many Omilo students have the opportunity to admire the first Greek electric car, which was built in Syros island. 
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In corona times, it is important to keep your mood upbeat! So maybe some humor can help to forget from time to time the daily negative news we hear?
All this, while improving your Greek of course 🙂
Let us introduce you to well-loved Greek stand-up comedian, actor and screenwriter Lambros Fisfis. Fisfis has gained in popularity thanks to his ability to turn mundane everyday situations into an endless source of laughter through his sarcasm and expressiveness.

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Greek Herbs And Spices are natural products, and have been used since Ancient times in Greece. The variety of herbs and spices in the Greek countryside gave the Ancient Greeks the ingredients to flavor their food, as well as the possibility to cure people. This reflected in the famous quote of Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), physician and the father of medicine: “Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food”.

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Watching TV can be a relaxing as well as fun way to practise your listening skills and learn new vocabulary. This is why we would like to introduce you to a popular Greek comedy series called Στο Παρά 5 (Sto Para Pente; =at five minutes to… which in Greek also means “in the nick of […]

Who could imagine in March 2020, that the whole world would go to “lockdown” due to the Corona Covid-19 virus, and when traveling many times a “quarantine” is requested? All this belonged to history, most of us thought… or the younger generation probably never heard of the word “quarantine” before. S0 let’s see how the quarantine was organized on the Greek island of Syros, in the previous century.


Since 2005, during the summer months, Omilo is organizing its Greek Language and Culture courses on the island of Syros. The Omilo students usually fly to Athens or Mykonos, and from there travel by boat to Hermoupolis, the harbor of Syros island, and the capital of all Cycladic islands.

When you are about to arrive and face the harbor, you have a magnificent view over the hills of Hermoupolis and Ano Syros.  When you look to the left, on the southern extremity of the port, you also see a stone building, which once was the island’s quarantine, the “Lazaretto”. Nowadays, the building is beautifully lit at night, so it is easy to spot.

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Eugene Trivizas is one of Greece’s leading writers for children. Although he studied law and specialises in criminology, he has published more than 120 children’s books and has become the most well-known and beloved Greek storyteller (or as we’d say in Greek, “paramithas”).

 

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Looking forward to the Christmas Period? Here below you will find information about some Christmas traditions in Greece.
In the meantime, in order to improve your listening skills,  you can click on the button above, where you will find the text in Greek as well as the Audio
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