University professor Christos Kapnoukagias was born and died in Siatista (1900 – 1994).
He taught at the University of Leipzig until 1949, having the seat of Latin Philology. He was persecuted by the regime of the 4th of August of Ioannis Metaxas. Many things have been misunderstood by the respected teacher.
Many of us remember him - as I wrote in the past - walking with his cane wearing the outfit, to sit in the stall of Agios Dimitrios that bore his name and the Despot sends him the ransom with the young man.
The works of "My father", "My mother", "My teachers and teachers of Siatist Primary School, of Trabantzeio Siatistis High School and the universities of Athens, Leipzig and Berlin », they are not just biographical works.
Christos Kapnoukagias records not only historical data (eg the liberation of Siatista, the first elections in Siatista, the Seraphim, the pedagogical and didactic methods, school holidays, the doctorate), but records and comments at the same time, ethnographic elements (the father's friends, dialogues of his mother with her girlfriends, the multifaceted role of woman in the home, the relations of the spouses), folklore elements (the preparation and the ceremony of the father's funeral, traditional recipes). The texts are enriched with words, phrases of the Siatist idiom but also explicitly of Latin.
I think that Kapnoukagias really enjoyed writing these works. These are books that I would recommend to each of us to read if he wants to travel to Siatista of the first twenty years of the 20th century. Much more these days.
His book "My Mother" was completed on October 5 1967, 3:45pm at his holiday home in the "Diarreoi" area of Siatista, as he writes on his last page.
In the chapter "MY MOTHER THEN AND NOW", Kapoukagias gives his own views on the upbringing of children. That's the question, we must learn to follow customs; If so why; What will be the benefits for children and their parents; To substantiate his positions he uses the coriander as an example.
I transfer the text as it is (p 205 -206)
I must not say fatalistically, "That's how I found them from my parents, so I will leave them ". Of course in terms of customs, I must try to interpret them scientifically: That is, to know. Why was this custom maintained to this day?. For example: "The necklaces of Western Macedonia".
The modernist, I will go immediately: «It is a shame to send our children with the snowy morning cold, to ask for "kolianta". We will restore the cause;» But, if they knew how healthy it is for the little ones - I watched it and I know from experience - waking up in the morning and walking in the bitter cold of the little ones with their peers, they would not advocate the abolition of custom.
The little one, that festive breakfast of the "kalandos", the big one accepts him as his equal guest, and the little one feels this and that is why he wants it.
Then there is the other: accustoms the little child to the use of plenty of sweets on his property, he begins to think what he will do, how to dispose of them. There the good mother will be able to watch the little one, if I have charitable feelings, if he is greedy, if he is a moral friend, if it is of manorial conduct and so on. This morning walk for the little ones is a very didactic sociology lesson.
When you get home, his parents will ask him, the brothers, the brothers and the others, which house did they go to, what they gave them, how they were received and then they will see, if the little one is narrated freely, have verbal pluto, it is imaginary, the philanthropist and finally, when he grows up he will have this vivid memory of his childhood, as the starting point of the life of the limit.
So it is to abolish this fine custom, itself in the provinces; question.
You examined two grown children, of which, one "walked for kolianta" and the other "no", of the same age, and you will know which of the two is morally won in life, and then advocate for non-observance of custom.
"This is a formidable begging and must be missed", the newly wealthy parent is heard saying and perhaps we do not see rich, who went bankrupt and praised; Maybe "happily begging" is not an art; Why not learn it from the fine custom of carols intuitively;
This is how we should think, as far as delivery is concerned, to judge it as observable or not. Otherwise, if it blows it is not needed, disappears on its own indifferent, one after a few years it would come back again, because "the human circle".
