Greek Festival focuses on food, fun, and family

One of the year’s favorite traditions is just around the corner. The Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church of Castro Valley (est. 1971) is hosting it 46th annual Greek Festival August 18 through 20. Guests will experience amazing food, inspiring dance, great music, and fun-loving Hellenistic culture bursting with life. More than a good time, however, the festival is also an opportunity to tour the beautiful Church and experience the otherworldly iconography characteristic of the Eastern Orthodox Church since the days of the Roman Empire.

The origins of the Greek church has its roots in New Testament times when the early Christian church was spreading across Asia Minor, into Greece, and onto the Italian peninsula. As the local communities embraced the Church, traditions grew that reflected the local cultures. By the eleventh century, Rome and Constantinople were the centers of churches whose beliefs and practices differed enough to raise suspicions and draw accusations of heresy.

Tensions came to a head in 1054 when Pope Leo IX sent a delegation under Cardinal Humbert to not only seek the Byzantine Emperor’s help fending off the Normans, but demand that Cerularius, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, renounce his title and accept Rome’s authority. Cerularius, unhappy with Rome’s treatment of the Greek churches in Italy, responded by excommunicating Humbert and his delegation; Humbert, not to be outdone, excommunicated Cerularius. Over the next few centuries, the western and eastern branches of Christianity solidified into the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches we know today. Happily, relations have notably improved over the centuries.

The first Greek Orthodox Church in the United States, the Holy Trinity of New Orleans, was founded in 1864. Greek immigration to the United States would peak in the 1880’s, but many had arrived during the 1820’s after Greece liberated itself from the Ottoman Empire. The war’s resulting foreign debt and a general lack of industry forced many Greeks to seek opportunities abroad, especially in the United States.

Between 1900 and 1920, more than 350,000 Greeks immigrated to the US, of which nearly 95 percent were men. In keeping with Greek tradition, these men often worked to secure dowries for their sisters back home. In 1905 alone, Greek immigrants remitted more than four million dollars to their families in Greece. Most did not intend to stay in the United States.

But stay they did. By 1918, nearly 130 Orthodox churches had been founded across the country. Local community organizations called kinotis raised the necessary funds to establish the churches. Many Greeks sought the close-knit communities they had in their home country, and the churches provided the immigrants with forums in which to share their common beliefs. Subsequently, the Orthodox Church became a center for not just spiritual sustenance, but a bastion of Hellenistic culture, including music, language, food, dance, and tradition.

Today, Greek Orthodox churches continue to serve as cultural and social centers for many Greek communities within the United States, with many of them running schools that teach Greek in both classroom and summer camp settings.

One tradition in particular has become a staple of Greek-American culture—the Festival. In addition to numerous feasts for various liturgical holidays, it was traditional for towns and village in the “old country” to have panigiri or feast to celebrate the name day of the local patron saint. These annual celebrations of food and dance assumed in the U.S. the form of the Greek Festival as we have come to know it.

Such festivals serve a dual purpose: on the one hand, the money raised from the sale of food and beverages funds a substantial portion of local church operating budgets, but on the other, and perhaps more importantly, they rekindle an appreciation of Greek cuisine and Hellenistic culture that remains strong and that people of all backgrounds have come to love. It’s no wonder that nearly every Greek Orthodox Church in the US now hosts a Greek Festival.

Preparing for a festival of this size is a tremendous amount of work for the parishioners of Resurrection. Thousands of pastries will be made, hundreds of chickens will be roasted; uncounted mountains of Greek meatballs will be hand-rolled. During the many months of preparation, parishioners have a chance to re-connect with each other. The Resurrection Church, spiritual home to about 200 families, counts on about 100 volunteers every year, many of whom have participated since their own parents helped run the festival years ago.

Greek Festival committee member Gary Wallner notes, “Many of the recipes used in the preparation of our dishes have been handed down through the generations.” Morever, notes Wallner, “There are a lot of great red and white wines coming out of Greece these days, so we’re going to have a wine-tasting, as well.” Greek fare scheduled to appear at the festival include:

• Roasted lamb

• Gyros

• Tiropita (cheese pie)

• Dolmades (stuffed grape leaves)

• Spanakopita (spinach pie)

• Roasted chicken

• Pork souvlaki

• Calamari

• Greek Meatballs

• Pastichio (baked pasta and ground beef)

At the Kafenion (coffee house) you’ll find a mouth-watering assortment of handmade pastries including baklava, kataifi, koulourakia and much more. If you can’t get your fill at the festival, there will be plenty to take home with you.

(A great description of the various pastries can be found on the Resurrection Orthodox Church’s website here: http://www.greekfestival.me/kafenion-and-coffee-bar.html)

Greek Festival

Friday, Aug 18, 2017 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, Aug 19, 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Sunday, Aug 20, 11:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Resurrection Greek Orthodox Church

20104 Center St, Castro Valley

(510) 581-8950

www.greekfestival.me

Free admission

Free parking

Free dance lessons