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Published: January 7th 2009
Vasilopita 2009
Cutting the Vasilopita (New Year Cake/Bread)Week 9 in Greece
New Year’s Day and we cut the Vasilopita ( New Year Day Cake, which is a yeast based bread with 2009 indicated on the top. They put a Euro coin in the cake and who gets it when you cut the cake has the prospects of good luck. Michael got one coin and there was a shared one between our son Nicholas and his Greek cousin, Elizabet. The reason why there were 2 coins was Michael did not know that the Baker had put in one coin and so he also put in our coin. I usually make the Vasilopita back in Australia, but purchased one here. We celebrated New Year Lunch at George and Aleka's apartment and Aleka had cooked many dishes, including the feature one of roast goat. Again many indulgences, but New Year only comes once a year!
George, Michael’s brother came to see us on Sunday and bought 4 lovely fish from Mihaniona, a fishing town about 10 km away. They were cooked on the coals and were delicious. Later he took us up to a town called Agios Vasiliki, about 45 km from Salonika or about half an hour’s drive from where
Aleka and the roast goat
Aleka cooked a roast goat for New Year Day Lunch and it was delicious. Gwen is with Aleka. we are living. We saw the snow and he and Michael had a bit of a snow ball fight. Salt had been put on the main road, so it was free of snow and you did not need chains on the car tyres, but the countryside was covered in snow. Even on Monday in Salonika we saw some car tops which still had a layer of snow on them.
Monday we went into Salonika and visited the big food market and there was a priest going inside each shop with a glass of water and a small branch of bay tree leaves, blessing the shops for good wishes for the New Year. I assume the shop owners gave him some money for his efforts.
We also saw a friend on the bus, Themas, and he said he had gone to the bank to get some money to pay some bills. There were 200 other people in front of him, ( they use a numbering system) so he went off and did his other tasks, and when he came back, his number was nearly up. (Remember the banks have been closed for New Year holiday period, so would have been very
George,Aleka and Elizabet
Michael's Brother George and family at New Year's Day lunch busy). Although there are lots of ATM’s a lot of older people like going to the bank to do their banking. Some kids came to sing carols at Aleka’s apartment- last day for doing the “Calendar” as singing of the carols is called.
6th January was the Name Day of women called Fanoula; it was also our 32nd Wedding Anniversary when we were married in Greece and the day of the Blessing of the Waters when a cross is thrown into the ocean/water by the local priest and the young men jump in to try to swim and retrieve it. Whoever gets to the cross first will have good luck. But walking down to the beach I fell over and twisted my left ankle. We hobbled down to the Perea wharf, but it was over before we got there- we could see the young men in the water swimming in the freezing water. Not that cold as in some other town where it was minus 8 and they had to use a bulldozer type of digger parked on a jetty to clear the ice from the lake so the young men could actually jump into the water to retrieve the
George and Michael in Snow
Michael and brother George in the snow near a left parked truck trailer cross. This Blessing of the Water tradition takes place throughout Greece. I took some photos of people filling up small bottles of water from the container of blessed water near the church and then hobbled home. Today is 7th Jan and the Name Day of Yannis ( John) so may visit some relatives who will celebrate this day with someone in their family named Yannis. Greeks celebrate their Name Day rather than their birthday. Their Name Day will occur sometime during the year.
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