Why Do Greeks Break Plates?

Why Do Greeks Break Plates?

Seeing and hearing Greeks breaking plates is a normal as seeing sculptures and statues of the hundreds of Greek gods and goddesses all over the island of Greece. Nevertheless, if you come and think about it, if plate breaking was such a common sight in Greece, then there shouldn’t be any more plates and saucers lefts in the country.

So how did this disturbingly noisy yet attention-grabbing custom get started? Why do Greeks break plates? Simply said, plate breaking is part and parcel of the Greek tradition to celebrate Kefi ‘š the notion that emotion and joy should not be suppressed but expressed. So if you take the word literally, plates can be broken to express praise or joy over someone, to show grief over a close kin’s death, to celebrate the union of two minds and hearts and even so, the break up of two formerly in love persons.

No matter how dangerous the idea of flying ceramic shards is, a lot of Greeks still exercise this noisy tradition due to their suspicious belief that plate breaking will make better their lives or in other words, bring them luck. For instance, it is a worldwide notion that noise is capable of driving away evil spirits from a desolate place. Therefore, for the Greeks, plate breaking means scaring off the evil entities from their homes.

This ingenious practice of the Greeks has become so common all over the country that even Greeks who move out of their home city bring with them this tradition, whether it is to the United States, Asia, Europe and what not. In addition, smashing plates has already become a tourist attraction for the visitors of Greece as tourists can now go to Greek restaurants to watch the plate smashers lure the nearest passerby with their plate breaking antics or even so, to do the plate breaking ritual themselves!