Santa Claus Ships
Santa Claus Ships is one of the most beautiful
traditions of our island, a valuable heritage from our ancestors hammered
out by our Orthodox religiousness and our relation of Chios with the sea.
On New Year's Eve, groups of children are escort or hold, depending of
size, small mock-ups of warships, going around from house to house singing
carols and local wishes to the house inhabitants.
Most of the ship mock-ups are exact
replicas of Hellenic war fleet ships. They are made with great care and willing
spirit, enriched in appearance and innovation by the imagination of their
escorts, who are visiting in turn all neighborhoods with all lights on, the
engines driving the propellers, the chimneys smoking and the whistles sounding
cheerfully, whilst the small cannons are shooting as soon as they can be
reloaded.
