Monastery of Vatopedi. The dining room. (Photo credit: http://www.orthodoxos.com.gr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=1884#p7510) ” The feast of the Annunciation on March 25 was bound to occur sometime during the Lenten fast, sometimes even during Holy Week, leading many of our authors to make special dietary…
A snake on your pie
Greek Christmas breads and New Year pies have often impressive decorations such as serpentine figures made of dough. The serpent is a survival of the doctrine for the oikouros ofis*, the ancient home-protecting serpent, which believed to be an incarnation…
Byzantine dreams and white bread.
….Getting or eating or merely seeing a loaf of white bread signifies harshness and strife for any dreamer.….If someone dreams of eating white bread he will get profit sufficient for life’s sustenance. But if the bread is hot, he will…
A Taste of the Past: Pastirma
A large number of the refugees from the 1922 Greek – Turkish population exchange were Karamanlides, Cappadocian Greeks who only spoke the Turkish language but wrote it in Greek characters. They left what had be their home for thousands of years…
Easter bread and the number 8
Symbols for warding off the evil influences and christian symbols play an important part in the Greek festive breads. In parts of Greece, the early Christian tradition of number 8, symbol of Jesus resurrection,* survived in the Easter breads. However,…