Vallahades

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The Vallahades or Valaades (Βαλαάδες) were a Greek-speaking, Muslim population who lived along the river Bistritsa in southwest Macedonia. They numbered about 12,000.[1]

They were deported to Turkey as part of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, where they have continued to speak Greek, though they have taken a Turkish identity.[2]

Even after their deportation, they continued to celebrate New Year's Day with a Vasilopita, generally considered to be a Christian custom associated with Saint Basil, but they have renamed it a cabbage/greens/leek cake and do not leave a piece for the saint.[3]

The name Vallaades comes from the Turco-Muslim expression vallah 'by God!'. Though some Western travellers speculated that 'Vallaades' is connected to the ethnonym 'Vlach',[4] this is improbable, as the Vlachs did not speak Greek until the 20th century, and the Vallahades are Greek-speaking with no detectable Vlach influences.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Haslett, 1927
  2. ^ Andrews, 1989, p. 103; Friedman
  3. ^ Hasluck, 1927
  4. ^ Gustav Weigand, Alan Wace, and Maurice Thompson
  5. ^ email from researcher Souli Tsetlaka to Stavros Macrakis, Jul 2, 2007

[edit] References

  • Peter Alford Andrews, Rüdiger Benninghaus, eds. Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1989. (cited by Friedman, not seen)
  • Frederick de Jong, "The Greek Speaking Muslims of Macedonia: Reflections on Conversion and Ethnicity", pp. 141-148 in Hendrik Boeschoten, ed., De Turcicis Aliisque Rebus: Commentarii Henry Hofman dedicati Utrecht: Institut voor Oosterse Talen en Culturen, 1992. (cited by Friedman, not seen)
  • Victor A. Friedman, "The Vlah Minority in Macedonia: Language, Identity, Dialectology, and Standardization", pp. 26-50 in Juhani Nuoluoto, Martii Leiwo, Jussi Halla-aho, eds., University of Chicago Selected Papers in Slavic, Balkan, and Balkan Studies (Slavica Helsingiensa 21). Helsinki: University of Helsinki. 2001. full text
  • Margaret M. Hasluck, "The Basil-Cake of the Greek New Year", Folklore 38:2:143 (June 30, 1927) JSTOR
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