The Special Karpathos Custom
In the ancient times, the child was baptized eight days after its birth. Now another custom is mediated, more
in Kato Karpathos, “The Seven.”
According to a number of scholars of our time, Karpathos, an island of the Dodecanese on the southeastern edge of the Aegean Sea, is the place with the richest folk tradition in our country. Today we present the unique custom of “seven”, which survives to the days us. During his execution, the inhabitants of the bordering island demand, through an ancient magic-religious act (to which Christian elements have been attached), that the three fates give good luck to the newborn infant!
One of the oldest and most remarkable customs of Karpathos, which has been preserved until today, is the custom of “seven”, Days of course, from the birth of the child. According to this custom, on the seventh day from birth, without any invitation, relatives and friends of the newborn family gather in his home to celebrate his coming to the world. Visitors carry with them various sweets and gifts (usually gold) for the newborn. “Cans” with baklava, kourabiedes or drinks and gold chains, pericardial “identities”, copies of Byzantine coins, crosses, depictions of saints, garments, etc.
When the relatives and friends gather together, the grandmother, grand-grandmother or another one of the old woman of the family, will now wrap the infant with a silk sheet. After that, they dress the baby in the best shirt of the father (if he is a boy) or the mother’s underwear (if she is a girl). Then she places it on a large table in the middle of the room (in the old times they put the baby in a boat.). Then the other attendants put the gifts around the baby and state their best wishes. Through this part of the ceremony two prominent siblings of the extended family, whose parents are still alive, put the newborn in a silk sheet, holding it on both ends. Whispering and singing easy lullabies (mantinades) to the infant, that the babies mother or grandmothers create.
Written with information from the website metafysiko.gr