20 Important Calendar Dates To Remember: Celebrating Greek Traditions with Food and Feasts

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Sia Aristidou

Yesterday was the first day of the year. Well, not the normal calendar first day of the year (since it is only September) but the day which marks the beginning of the Church year. It was a little confusing at first, so I did some research, compiled my notes and then published a post about Orthodox New Years Day – you can read it here.

Writing the New Years Day post inspired me to think about other special events that happen throughout the year. So, to make it easy for everyone, I compiled a list of 20 Important Calendar Dates To Remember. Continue reading →

Happy New Year: Learn Why the Greek Orthodox Church Celebrates the New Year on the 1st of September

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Sia Aristidou

Happy New Year - To The Orthodox Church

It seems really strange to say HAPPY NEW YEAR today, but i’m not joking! It is actually the beginning of a New Year in the Orthodox Church.

According to this Antiochian website, the 1st of September marks the day when Jesus of Nazareth began preaching the good news of His mission. You can learn more about Orthodox religion and calendar dates on these websites: Continue reading →

Top Ten Fashion Tips – What to Wear to Church For Greek Easter

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Sia Aristidou

This ecard has popped up in my Facebook news feed a few times this week. It made me stop and laugh because there is some truth in the joke…

This funny little quote has inspired me to write a blog post about fashion and what to wear to Church for Greek Easter. Please share your own fashion tip in the comments section at the end of this article or on our Facebook page.

Fashion Expectations

You get told about all the rules from a very young age. There are certain expectations for what you can and can not wear to Church. If Yiayia doesn’t like what you are wearing, then you might not be able to leave the house until you find something more appropriate! Boys get it a little easier. The boys just need to wear a suit, shirt and a tie and they can get away with almost anything. However us girls have a much harder task when it comes to deciding on our Church outfit.

Your Church Wardrobe

Deciding what to wear to Church can be a really hard decision to make. In my opinion, this is why Holy Week at Church is often labelled the Fashion Parade or Greek Fashion Week. We have to put so much thought in to out outfits to make sure that it is appropriate and respectful.

Women are expected to wear skirts and stockings. You can’t show too much skin and you need to cover your shoulders. You can’t look like you’re going out to a nightclub but at the same time you don’t want to look too corporate. You don’t want to wear something that you have already worn to another big event like a wedding or christening (because people will remember) and you can’t wear last years Church outfit either.

Image found here: http://rstyle.me/~zxzu

God Doesn’t Care About Your Outfit:

Some people will probably think that I am being a bit superficial in this blog post. Surely your outfit will make no difference to God, right? The purpose of going to Church should be purely spiritual. It is about you and your own personal connection to your Faith. It has nothing to do with what you are wearing or how you look. Whilst I wholeheartedly believe in this truth, I also know that it is a very common conversation amongst Greek women around the world. Shopping for a new Church outfit at Easter time has become a tradition just like dyeing red eggs or making Easter Candles. What you wear to Church is an important topic to think about. My experience over the years have taught me a few lessons… here are my top ten tips for what to wear to Church for Greek Easter:

Continue reading →

Greek Cooking Challenge Recipe 4: Red Eggs ~ For Greek Easter

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Sia Aristidou

How to Be A Good Greek Cook – Join the #GreekCookingChallenge in 2014

Greek Cooking Challenge

April 2014

Red Eggs ~ For Greek Easter

This month we will be colouring Red Eggs in preparation for Greek Easter, Pascha (Πάσχα). It is Recipe Number 4 of the Greek Cooking Challenge.

Easter is always a very special family occasion. After Church on Saturday night we all go to yiaya’s house and eat. The table if full of amazing Greek food which includes some dishes that are traditionally cooked only at Easter time.

My Greek side of the family (my thea Sylvia) will make patza, which I think is similar to Magiritsa a soup made from meats such as goats head, tongue, liver and heart. Of course she also makes tsoureki, which is a traditional sweet Easter bread and domathes!

My husband’s yiaya is Cypriot and when we go to her house we will eat a different style of Easter food including Trahana soup, and avegolemeno for those who don’t like the trahana. There are also flaounas (1/2 with sultanas and 1/2 plain to suit everyone’s tastes).

At both houses, there will always be hard boiled eggs, which are dyed and decorated ready for the cracking game.

I would like to make tzoureki one day. Or maybe even patza or trakahana but too be honest, I don’t know if my cooking skills are good enough just yet. So this year, I think i’ll start off with an easy one…

So, for April’s Greek Cooking Challenge, we will be dying Red Easter Eggs!

Remember to share your photo on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #GreekCookingChallenge and #RedEasterEggs

Step 1: Recipe
Andie Powers from the blog Assemble shares a recipe for dyeing Easter Eggs Naturally with Onion Skins. However, I plan to use the recipe that is on the back of the food dye packet that I purchased from the local Greek deli.

The instructions on the back of the packet say:

1. Boil the desired eggs and let them cool.
2. Add a glass of vinegar to a pot of cold or hot water
3. Dissolve the dye in the vinegar and water mixture
4. Put the eggs in to the pot and let them sit for 2-5 minutes
5. Take the coloured eggs out and place them on a napkin to dry
6. Use an oily cloth to polish the eggs and make them shiny

Step 2: Cook!
Red Easter Eggs have a symbolic meaning representing the blood of Christ and rebirth. Traditionally the red eggs are dyed on Holy Thursday which is the Thursday before Easter Sunday. In fact, this day is often called “Kokkinopempti” which means Red Thursday.

Try to schedule some time next Thursday to dye your Red Eggs!

Avoid cooking on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. However you can use Easter Saturday as a back up plan just in case you don’t get them done on the Thursday.

Step 3: Take A Photo and Share It
Once your Red Eggs are ready, take a photo of it! Be sure to share your photo on social media with the hash tags #greekcookingchallenge and #redeastereggs or #redeggs. You can share it on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Or email directly to me at Sia@greekweddingtraditions.com.

This image is by Heather Christo – Click here to see her website and beautiful table decorations for Easter.

Step 4: Receive Your Gift
At the end of the month, the Greek Cooking Challenge subscribers will receive a pdf ebook of the Red Egg recipe enhanced with all your comments, secrets and notes, all gathered together and garnished with your photos. By the end of the year, you will have the perfect ebook of Greek food recipes, with home made pictures and secrets form within the kitchen of our subscribers. This gift will only be sent to you if you officially join the Greek Cooking Challenge – so if you haven’t already, you can still Sign Up Now!

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The Greek Cooking Challenge is all about Learning How To Be A Good Greek Cook.

Here on the blog, we can all help each other to learn how to be good Greek cooks together.

So don’t forget to share your thoughts throughout this month, your cooking experiences, tips and recipe secrets. Share the things that have gone wrong or perfectly right with your recipe, so we can all learn from each other!

Good Luck Everyone!

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Learn About Great Lent in the Greek Orthodox Church

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Sia Aristidou

Greek Easter by Pofyri.com.au

The Great 40 Days

The fasting period before Easter has just begun. The Greek Orthodox Church calls this period “Σαρακοστή” (Sarakosti) – the Great 40 Days or “νηστεία” (nistia) the Great Fast. For Greek Orthodox people, this is the most important fasting season of the Church year.

For many years, I have attended Church only for special occasions. This normally includes, the midnight Easter Service, Christmas morning, Weddings, Christenings and Funerals. Now that I am married, a little bit older and a little bit wiser, my spiritual journey has become more significant in my life. As I learn and grow, I share my experiences and my learnings here with you on the blog.

This Easter, I want to learn more about our Easter traditions and how we celebrate them with our family and in the Church.

Here is what I’ve learnt so far:

In Greece, the week before Great Lent is celebrated with Carnival – a time for celebration, eating, drinking and being with friends.
During Carnival (“Απόκριες” – apokries) people dress up (similar to Halloween in America) and they eat meat, lots and lots of meat.
Great Lent officially begins on Clean Monday or Ash Monday. In Greece, Clean Monday is a public holiday and a day of rest. Traditionally people ‘clean up’ their lives spiritually and physically. This day is the beginning of the fasting period.
On Clean Monday, Greek people will celebrate with the tradition of flying kites. Many also use this day to clean their kitchen utensils and their house. On this day, it is tradition to make lagana which is a bread specific made for the Great Fast.

A Personal Reflection

I don’t live in Greece. I was born and raised in Australia. So, the Greek traditions of Carnival and Clean Monday is very new to me. I have learnt about it because I now have friends who live in Greece and who help me with this blog.

It is interesting to reflect on this tradition from my own perspective. It makes sense. In Greece everyone knows about these traditions as it is celebrated nationally. In fact, everyone gets a holiday to celebrate. However in Australia, this tradition is only celebrated by the Church and there are many Greek Australians who are completely unaware of how fasting is a significant part of our spiritual and Greek way of life.

The more I learn about Greek traditions and our Orthodox religion, the more I understand about its importance in my life.

Why Do We Fast?

The GOARCH website shares a great story about how and why we fast. Theo Nicolakis suggests that sometimes we fast just because that is what we are told to do. It is what our parents do or what our grandparents tell us to do. He says that “we respect certain religious traditions and observe certain practices of our faith simply because our mothers did them. This is not necessarily wrong, but it is a sure prescription for turning these traditions in to empty and meaningless customs.”

I guess that is the reason why most of my generation of young Greek Australians don’t go to Church or Fast during Great Lent. We don’t see the point in it. It doesn’t have meaning nor does it make sense in our everyday lives. In Greece, everybody follows the tradition but in Australia, we are not properly educated about why we do the things that we do.

Everybody has their own opinion about what is right and what is wrong. Some people say that your should not eat meat during Lent, others tell you not to eat dairy products. Some say that you should just give something up, like smoking. There are many guideline about what you should and should not do during Lent, but the decision must always be your own.

Theo Nikolakis tells us that “Fasting is a way of emptying ourselves from the cares and concerns of this world.” Fasting is not just about cutting out certain foods from our diet. True Fasting is about letting go of our obsessions and our materialist connection in this world. It is about your own personal journey and the things that you learn about yourself during the 40 days of Lent. It is about the mindful connection that you make with yourself, through your decisions and your actions. It is the act of true Fasting that will enable you to receive God.

Rules For Fasting:

Once you have decided to fast for Great Lent, you should then make a decision or a commitment to yourself about what you will do. Use this list a guide or suggestion – it is just one of those ‘should’ and ‘should not’ lists that I borrowed from this website.

First Week of Lent:

Only two full meals are eaten during the first five days, on Wednesday and Friday after the Presanctified Liturgy.
Nothing is eaten from Monday morning until Wednesday evening, the longest time without food in the Church year.
For the Wednesday and Friday meals, as for all weekdays in Lent, meat and animal products, fish, dairy products, wine and oil are avoided.
On Saturday of the first week, the usual rule for Lenten Saturdays begins (see below).

Weekdays in the Second through Sixth Weeks:

The strict fasting rule is kept every day: avoidance of meat, meat products, fish, eggs, dairy, wine and oil.

Saturdays and Sundays in the Second through Sixth Weeks:

Wine and oil are permitted; otherwise the strict fasting rule is kept.

Holy Week:

The Thursday evening meal is ideally the last meal taken until Pascha. At this meal, wine and oil are permitted.
The Fast of Great and Holy Friday is the strictest fast day of the year: even those who have not kept a strict Lenten fast are strongly urged not to eat on this day.
After St. Basil’s Liturgy on Holy Saturday, a little wine and fruit may be taken for sustenance.
The fast is sometimes broken on Saturday night after Resurrection Matins, or, at the latest, after the Divine Liturgy on Pascha.

Wine and oil are permitted on several feast days if they fall on a weekday during Lent. Consult your parish calendar. On Annunciation and Palm Sunday, fish is also permitted.

If you are looking for some good recipes to cook while fasting then check out Pres Vassi’s Lentern Recipe List or The Greek Vegan and The Greek Vegetarian.

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Do you know of any fasting rules?
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