The President of the Hellenic Republic as well as the Prime Minster and political leaders were treated to traditional Christmas Carols on Sunday, Christmas Eve, with carolers from various associations and clubs from around Greece performing.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou received Christmas carolers and exchanged wishes, with the annual event again taking place at the presidential mansion in downtown Athens.
Sakellaropoulou also welcomed the Hellenic Navy’s military band and members of the Presidential Guard, the Evzones, with the latter singing carols to the accompaniment of the former.
Groups from Crete, the island of Ikaria and Thrace province also performed traditional dances and sang local carols, while a group of carolers from ‘Rainbow Families’, a group from the island of Karpathos and from Cyprus, followed.
The president also received primary school pupils from a Roma settlement and from the 1st Pallini Primary School. Both groups sang traditional Christmas carols.
Dressed in traditional costumes, women from the remote Dodecanese isle of Kastellorizo sang traditional carols to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his family at the Maximos Mansion government house.
Nikos Androulakis, the president of the PASOK, received members of the dance troupe Aorites, from his native island of Crete, at the party’s headquarters. He exchanged best wishes with members of the association and praised their initiative, as several members have special needs.
Stefanos Kasselakis the leader of the main opposition SYRIZA party, received Christmas carolers from the “Diktei Kastrini” Cretan Association at the party’s headquarters.
Kasselakis, along with other party cadres, watched them perform traditional Cretan Christmas carols and dances.
He later exchanged gifts with the dancers and musicians, and expressed a wish for “peace in the world and solidarity within Greek society.”
