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This image of Vasilopita the Greek New Years Bread was sourced from Irene Tamara’s Blog and the following information has been sourced from wikipedia:
Vasilopita is a New Year’s Day bread or cake in Greece. It contains a hidden coin or trinket which gives good luck to the receiver. It is made of a variety of doughs, depending on regional and family tradition, including tsoureki.
The tradition of vasilopita is associated with a legend of Saint Basil. According to the legend St. Basil called on the citizens of Caesarea to raise a ransom payment to stop the siege of the city. Each member of the city gave whatever they had in gold and jewelery. When the ransom was raised, the enemy was so embarrassed by the act of collective giving that he called off the siege without collecting payment. St. Basil was then tasked with returning the unpaid ransom, but had no way to know which items belonged to which family. So he baked all of the jewelery into loaves of bread and distributed the loaves to the city, and by a miracle each citizen received their exact share, the legend goes. In some tellings the sieging chieftain is replaced with an evil emperor levying a tax, or simply with St. Basil attempting to give charity to the poor without embarrassing them.
The traditions surrounding vasilopita are very similar to western European celebrations of the Twelfth Night and Epiphany: the Provençal Gâteau des Rois and the Northern French galette des rois, the Catalonian tortell, and the Louisiana king cake. Hasluck (1927) connects both the western and the eastern celebrations to the Roman Saturnalia and the ancient Greek Kronia, the festival of King Cronus, which involved selecting a “king” by lot.
The name “βασιλόπιτα” comes from βασιλεύς ‘king’ + πίτα ‘pie’, but was reinterpreted as Saint Basil’s (Βασίλειος) cake.
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This image of a the Vaselopita with the coin is from whippedtheblog.com which is a fantastic food blog including many wonderful Greek recipes.
Every year on New Years Day, all of my brothers, sisters, aunties uncles and cousins have lunch together. It is a usual big fat Greek lunch with more than enough food to feed the entire neighborhood. There is always souvlaki, halloumi, fish, octopus, prawns, domathes, patatas, salata and many other traditional Greek foods. After lunch we will have dessert (even more food). Then after dessert, when we are all ready for tea and coffee, my Thea will bring out the Vaselopita.
Vaselopita is a Greek bread that is traditionally shared on New Years Day. It is baked with a coin inside it. The coin symbolised good luck and the person who received the coin inside their piece of bread will have good luck for the rest of the year.
This year, the coin was found in between both my piece and my fiance piece. This was a really special way for us to start the new year. Our wedding is in 2011 and according to the Vaselopita, we will both have good luck.
Next year i want to make my own Vaselopita for the very first time. Before I do that im going to need:
- A good recipe for Vaselopita
- Advice on how to wrap the coin and place it into the cake so that it doesn’t fall straight to the bottom
- The correct procedure on ‘How to Cut the bread’
- What to do with the coin if i win it again?
Please share your Vaselopita recipe suggestions and advice in the comments.
Happy New Year
This embarrasing special moment was captured by Christos Hcuntas who is a photographer in New York. He specialises in Greek weddings, christenings and many other cultural events. Check out more of his work by visiting his website or blog.
In This Picture:
The groom has successfully smashed wedding cake in to the brides face.
The Wedding Cake
Sharing the first piece of wedding cake is a tradition that has evolved since the ancient Roman times. The Romans believed that by eating the wedding cake together, a special bond was created between the couple. The wedding cake back then was more like a special bread made from wheat.
This ‘wedding cake’ was broken over the head of the new bride to bestow fertility and good luck for her married life. The wheat used to bake the cake was symbolic of fertility and a fruitful union, while the cake’s sweetness was thought to bring sweetness to all areas of the couple’s new life.
Today ’cutting the cake’ is a very important part of any wedding, including Greek weddings. For the newlywed couple it is often considered a very special moment. For photographers and guests it is a great kodak moment. And for the groom it is ‘the moment’ to have a bit of cheeky fun.
How will you eat your wedding cake?
Watch this short clip from Youtube. It shows a Greek Macedonian tradition of the pig dance that symbolizes fortune for the future. Here the a pig is presented to the bride and groom on a silver tray and the wedding guests pay for a small piece.
In This Picture:
The father of the bride and the father of the groom are both holding a large round loaf of bread. According to JustLL , the one who grabs the larger piece has more say in this new family.
I have never heard about this tradition until i stumbled across this picture so i don’t know which island it comes from.
Do you know more about this tradition? What is the name of the bread that is broken… and do you know a recipe for it?
| I have found a fantastic recipe for Pasteli. It is from a really great website called Gourmed which documents recipe’s for everything Greek and lets your create your own recipe file! Ingredients: | |
| 2 cups of honey 1 cup of water 4 cups of walnuts, roughly chopped ½ cup of multi grain rusk, crushed grated rind of 2 lemons a little anthotiro cheese (or ricotta) 200gr of sesame seeds, browned bitter orange or lemon leaves, for serving |
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| Instructions: | |
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Combine the walnuts with the grated rind and crushed rusk. Combine the honey and the water in a pan over medium heat and bring to a boil: cook until mixture thickens and becomes elastic. To see if the syrup is the right consistency, drop a teaspoonful of the mixture into a glass of cold water. Remove from the water and roll into a ball. If the ball is too soft, allow the syrup to cook for a few minutes more and test it again. The syrup is ready when the ball is firm, like elastic (take care, however, not to overcook otherwise it will caramelise). Immediately add the walnut mixture to the syrup and stir quickly.Sprinkle a marble work surface with rose water and follow with a liberal sprinkling of sesame seeds; spread the walnut mixture over the top, forming it into a square or rectangle, about 1cm thick. Moisten hands with rose water or dip a spatula into same and smooth the top. Sprinkle with plenty of sesame seeds and press well into the surface.Allow to cool a little and when still slightly warm, use a sharp knife to cut into long strips and then diagonally to form diamonds. Serve on washed and dried bitter orange or lemon leaves.Pasteli can be safely stored for some time in metal containers or wrapped in sheets of gelatin. Good pasteli shouldn’t be hard or brittle, but pliant and stringy when pulled apart.* For greater convenience, use a special thermometer for measuring the temperature of syrup. The pasteli is ready when the honey mixture has reached a temperature of 120°C.
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Read another interesting article about Pastelli by clicking here!
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