My Big Fat Greek Festival

Reposting this older article as we get closer to the 30th Greek Festival in Eules October 789 2011.

Festival page here

We just closed the doors of another Greek Festival at Saint Johns. We are all happy but tired and some May think and we cannot blame them why we do this every year? A short answer would be: we need the money! And it is a good answer but maybe we could find other ways to raise the needed funds. Still I think even though we might manage to get there we should continue doing the festival. And I will present my argument for it.

In the present times the American society has an identity crisis. Most people have a hard time defining even what makes them American: the simple fact of living in the USA or speaking English or eating steaks? It is not an easy answer.  It is even more difficult for the people that come from an ethnic background. Because it is apparent that we cannot give a unique answer to this question we tend to accept more and more that maybe we shouldnt even try to find a unique answer but we should rather accept the multicultural complexity of our world.

However even if we May not be able to define ourselves as a nation we can do this at a community level. We have to do this exercise because if we do not know who we are we will find ourselves somewhat lost in space and time without roots and without a direction for advancement.

So who are we at Saint Johns in Euless? Many of us are Greek by descent and this is why we are called a Greek Orthodox Church; but others are not. So how can we define ourselves? As a contemporary Greek theologian was writing what makes the Greeks to be Greek it is not a place of birth but is rather a mode of life that throughout the centuries and despite the occupations and struggles was shared and preserved and eventually incorporated in the ecclesiastical Orthodoxy. This is one thing we all have in common: the Orthodox faith.

Orthodox faith is not just another Christian denomination but Orthodox Christianity is a way of life: Greek or not we fast together we pray together we all partake of the same Eucharist during the Holy Liturgy. We are first of all a community of Faith; we are members of the One Church of Jesus Christ and here as Saint Apostle Paul says: there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision and uncircumcision foreigner Scythian slave or freeman but Christ is all things in all. (Colossians 3:11) We belong to the new people of God; we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. This way of life makes us at Saint Johns to be all alike.

The Greek Festival gives us an extraordinary opportunity to rediscover this shared identity and reinforce our ties within the congregation. During a weekend at least we all work together we endure the heat together but we also rejoice together. And year after year we keep doing the same because we need to constantly remind ourselves of this identity so we can offer it down to our children.

So as you can see in the end we are all Greek! Ooopah!

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4 Replies to “My Big Fat Greek Festival”

  1. The problem I see with the festival is that the focus was on Secular Greekness and not on the Faith. None of the stores in the tent were selling Orthodox Bibles Icons Prayer ropes and I saw no introduction to the faith.

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    1. There are two parts to the festivals as there are two parts to every man: body and soul. We had the food and the dancing but also we had about 6 different Church tours in total for the weekend lasting about one hours each explaining a little of the Orthodox faith to those interested we also had a full offering of books and religious items associated with this activity. Yes we did not had them under the tent was crowded there anyway in the current conditions but those who were interested found also food for their souls in our festival. Each year I speak in these tours with over 2-300 people and some come back and few even convert. We try to offer as much as we can keeping also in mind that too much at once can be scary for some. Peace and joy into the Lord!

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  2. @Nik by the way I read from your blog tonight quite an interesting mixture of information I like it. Btw I used to be a world traveler too and have spent time looking for and even serving in various Orthodox Churches in Asia. Maybe one day we can sit down and tell travel stories. Id love to meet (formally) your family also. Maybe after the next Vespers we see each other.

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    1. Father Bless! It seems that more people have attended Vespers and Daily Liturgies since the Festival so I hope that helped. I was actually hoping to by an Orthodox Study Bible at the Festival for a friend who is in need of a new Bible.

      I would love to sit down formally with you outside of Confession sometime when we all have time. Sorry Daniel can be so loud at Vespers.

      Kissing your right hand
      -Nicholas

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