Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: My Big Fat Greek Baptism

One year ago, I posted a FoodBuzz 24, 24, 24 submission entitled Greek Food Hospital-ity, detailing a Greek food night I put together for the staff at Mount Sinai Hospital - 7 South Ward, in celebration of our son’s birth. Days prior, and after my wife Sophie had spent almost three weeks in the hospital’s High Risk Pregnancy Ward, Ilias was born premature at 28 weeks gestation. My son went on to spend another couple months in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) until he was ready to come home. One year later, on the occasion of our son’s Baptism and First Birthday, I am happy to report that both Ilias and my wife are well, and our son continues to flourish as a healthy, happy, and sociable baby boy.

Achilles being baptised in the river Styx by his mother, Thetis, from a 19th Century French lithograph

By this point, almost everybody knows that weddings are a Big Fat deal for Greeks. Of lesser renown, but of no less importance to us, is the custom of Baptism as a naming ceremony. The ritual is the first of the sacraments in the Orthodox Church. It is a day of celebration which is seen as a natural fulfilment of the marriage bond between a man and a woman. At your wedding, friends and relatives wish you a speedy passage to parenthood; at your baptism they express their wish to be present at your wedding. The two go hand in hand.

The practice of infant baptism in the Orthodox Church goes back over eighteen centuries and has evolved into a highly ritualized affair. I will not go into any great detail describing the ceremony, but there are a few points that I will touch upon. Unlike the Roman Catholic Christening rite in which water is trickled over the head of the child, Orthodox baptism involves complete immersion in a large copper or chromium font - the child is stripped down to their birthday suit and dipped three times into the water. In addition, the godparents who stand as sponsors for the child during the ritual are charged with anointing the infant completely from head to toe and in the mouth with handfuls of olive oil. Ilias’ godmother, made sure to pick up a bottle of Iliada brand Greek olive oil for this purpose, in honour of my son’s name, which is an eponym taken from the ancient title of the Iliad: Ilias (ΙΛΙΑΣ).

The baptism ceremony took place at the beautifully illuminated Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Toronto, with Fr. Nicholas Alexandris presiding over the affair. We were late getting to the church as I had what I’ll classify as a ‘wardrobe malfunction’. Suffice it to say, we held up the proceedings a tad while my pants were stitched up. My tailor will be hearing about it, believe me!

The beautifully decorated interior of St. Nicholas Church

When things finally got under way, everyone played their assigned part. The priest performed the age-old ritual without a hitch, the godparents dutifully cupped their hands for the olive oil, the photographer danced about all of us snapping away, I tried video recording and taking some photos of my own, and my son went up into the air and down into the water bloomp without a squawk. Usually, babies cry uncontrollably when they are baptised, but my son surprised everyone by laughing and kicking his legs as if he were splashing about in a wading pool; it was super cute, and even the priest was smiling!

Fr. Nicholas Alexandris smiling as he baptizes our son

After the dunking, Ilias had his gold baptismal cross from his godparents blessed and placed around his neck. At this point, the ritual completed, our son was dressed in the customary white outfit his godparents had picked out for him, and then, we were off to the Arkadia House restaurant for the traditional baptismal reception.

Our guests for the afternoon meal totalled 98 adults and 26 children. Service began with an appetizer plate composed of a selection of dips which included tzatziki, taramosalata, scorthalia, and hummous. This was accompanied by some pan-fried squid or Calamari, which was followed by an iceberg lettuce salad with a creamy feta cheese dressing. For mains, the choices included grilled salmon, chicken breast, or filleted pork loin, and a vegetarian penne pasta dish. The food was excellent. The wine served was Cava Camba Red & Cava Camba White from Boutari, both very drinkable.

For anyone looking for some good Greek food in the east end of Toronto, I highly recommend the Arkadia House Restaurant. The meals were well-prepared, the portions were generous, the service was good, and the price quite reasonable. Two thumbs up!

Ilias and some of the food that was served in his honour

All of which brings me to the final element of our meal: the sweet table. Family members spent the better part of two days preparing the traditional Greek desserts we served our guests. We had sliced baklava rolls, Greek shortbread cookies (kourabiethes), fried pastry pleats drizzled in honey (diples), walnut & honey-syrup cake (karythopita), and an assortment of freshly cut fruit. In addition, we had two cakes from the celebrated St. Phillips Bakery; one of the cakes was strawberry shortcake and the other was a chocolate ganache layer cake, the former was for his Ilias’ baptism, the latter was for his first birthday. Before serving dessert, we sang “Happy Birthday” for Ilias, and fed him his first taste of cake.

A selection of the desserts and cakes served in Ilias' honour

All in all, we had a wonderful day filled with family and friends. Our son smiled, cooed, giggled, laughed, kicked, wriggled, yelled and cuddled his way through the entire affair. This served to tire him out by the end of it all, which allowed his mother and me some moments of respite from the long day’s events. When we got home, we wound down with a few shots of Skinos Mastiha (a mastic liqueur). Our son’s Big Fat Greek Baptism was a beautiful celebration and one of the most important events in our lives. The fact that we were able to celebrate his birthday at the same time was a bonus! We want to thank our friends and family who attended the event, particularly Ilias’ godparents, as well as the many well-wishers who sent their kind sentiments through the Internet via Twitter, Facebook, etc. We also want to thank the good folks at FoodBuzz for choosing our 24, 24, 24 submission and giving us a chance to share our family’s special day with a wider audience.

Pánta Kalá! (Always Be Well)


Sam Sotiropoulos
Greek Gourmand™
http://www.greekgourmand.com
Greek Food Recipes and Reflections
Copyright © 2008, Sam Sotiropoulos. All Rights Reserved.