After New Year?s Day, most of us are ready to get back to pre-celebration status (and weight).
Not so in the Greek community, where the party carries on.
Jan. 1 celebrates one of the founders of the Greek Orthodox Church, St. Basil, or St.Vasilios. It is also a day of celebration for anyone called Vasilios or Vasiliki.
“Christmas through the Epiphany [Jan. 6] is a festive time for us, but for my family, New Year?s Day is the big deal,” says Gayle Economos, president of GVE Media/Public Relations in Baltimore. “It?s particularly special because my mother is named Vasiliki and I have an Uncle Billy [Vasilios] as well.”
On St. Basil?s Day, the Vasilopita is baked.
This is a bread or cake that conceals a token or coin. The cake is carefully divided up – the saint gets the first piece, then the eldest member of the household, and so on down through the family, sometimes including those who live far away.
Whoever gets the piece with the coin is assured good luck for the year.
“Traditionally, not only pieces for the different members of the family are cut, but also for the house and any pets or animals too,” says Aglaia Kremezi, author of “The Foods of the Greek Islands.” “On the island of Kea, where I now live, the Vasilopita remains on the table all day long, so everybody who drops by has a taste, and wishes the family a fruitful year.”
“I still have all the quarters my mother wrapped in foil and put in the bread,” says Dena Contopasis, of Alexandria. “I?ve taken on the tradition now, and I make the cake version of the Vasilopita.”
Where in Greece the family hails from determines the type of Vasilopita that is made.
“My family makes a pita [pie] that is similar to spanekopita [spinach pie], but we use a squash mixture in the phyllo dough,” Economos says.
And if you don?t happen to find the coin in your piece of Vasilopita, don?t worry.
Pomegranates are also a luck-bearing part of the Greeks New Year?s table.
Just break one on the entrance of your home and you are assured good fortune
