The Ancient Roman kalends, celebrated in Greece today through carols (ta kalanta), are sung by children on Christmas, New Year, and Theophany.

🟡The Ancient Roman kalends, celebrated in Greece today through carols (ta kalanta), are sung by children on Christmas, New Year, and Theophany. In exchange, they receive cash and other symbolic actions to ensure good fortune for the coming year. These traditions originated in the former Byzantine empire and were a descendant of the ancient Roman festival of the kalends of January. The kalends have evolved over 2,500 years, with some being based on the feast day of St. Basileios of Kaisareia, a key Church Father for monasticism, Orthodoxy, and literary education. St. Basileios has also become the Greek equivalent of Santa Claus, known as Hagios Basileios (or Ai Vasilis) in Greece.

🟢The Byzantine scholar Ioannes Tzetzes, in the mid-twelfth century, included a section on "wandering vagabonds" in his “Histories”. He mentions  wandering priests who beg for more during January and the birth of Christ and the day of Epiphany. These verses confirm the continuity of the kalends celebration, with people knocking on doors and receiving gifts in exchange for singing and blessing the household.

🟠Asterios, a bishop of Amaseia, denounced the mercantile aspect of the festival, arguing that it fell short of charity. He also complained that most people participated in the kalends rather than attending Christmas and Epiphany masses, as gifts were enforced, presents were regifted, and the festival caused depression rather than merriment. Asterios' description of the festivities resembled Tzetzes' for the twelfth century, with common vagabonds and stage performers visiting every house and harassing public buildings. The carnival spirit was still alive in 400 BC, and it is unclear when the carnival aspect split off from the kalends festival and became self-existent before Lent.

🟤Asterios mentions that children participated in the kalends festival, offering novelty gifts like fruit wrapped in tinsel. The prominent participation of children was a constant from Asterios' era to the present, and it likely gained importance as the carnival aspect of the festival retreated after 1200. 

Source: Anthony Kaldellis, The Kalends in Byzantium. 

So regarding this drawing: The lyrics of Byzantine Christmas and New Year carols, which are still sung nowadays in Greece, hid innuendos with which the young singer expressed their interest in the young Byzantine maiden of the house without her parents noticing. Phrases like "My tall rosemary" and "Take a look at me, I am a young lad" are meticulously hidden in Christmas-related lyrics. This drawing is included in the Christmas special issue of the journal "After Constantine".