How the Greek-American Community Celebrates the New Year: A Look at Traditional Traditions
Between January and February during the Hollywood Greek Festival The Hollywood Greek Festival will be held by St. George Greek Orthodox Church located at N. th Avenue, Hollywood. Participants can enjoy an array of traditional Greek meals and desserts and be entertained with live music and dancing. Also, live performances from the community’s award-winning dance team are scheduled. The once-a year event offers the chance to take lessons in dance , as well as take home the top prize in a raffle. It is also a chance to create lasting memories with your children in at the fun Zone. This festival is the only where you can find orzo daiquiris an original invention.
PhiloThought invites you for the Annual Young Professionals Vasilopita Brunch. This event for charity is held at Skinos in Lower Manhattan on Saturday, Jan. 2. The event takes place right in front the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church as well as the National Shrine celebrates the new year. All profits will be donated to PhiloThought to fund its programs as well as annually awarding scholarships to students who are financially disadvantaged. You must register by the end of January in order to receive a discount on fees for registration. For more details, visit: https://bit.ly/GIs. PhiloThought will also be inviting you to attend the Newport Winter Glendi Greek Dance in Middletown (Rhode Island).
UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation invites attendees to come out on the 1st of January at 5 PM in MacGowan Hall, Los Angeles, for A Winter Glendi. This event is a live event with dance performances by The Norwalk Pontian Society and accompanying music from Fotia.Live featuring Iosif Tsentekidis, Nikos Spaniotis, Nikos Savvas, Voula Berdos, and Tony Pentikis as well as Pontiaka with Vaggelis Pesiridis and Michael Pesiridis. Tickets are $ for adults with a child age below.
“Polymnia” is the first world-premiere of “Polymnia” the experimental chamber opera, is a pleasure. It tells the story of a woman who overcomes trauma and war with strength and then reflects on the impact that her story has had on generations of people. The second production of the production will take place on Sunday January 2nd, at 5:00 PM. It will feature Sappho’s poetry and Kassiane’s songs as well as four generations of family documents or oral history and personal photos that tell the tale of Polymnia Theodosia’s great-grandmother Polymnia Pappas. It is the story of a young girl who’s home was destroyed.
Through the auspices and guidance under the consular general of Greece within Los Angeles and made possible with the help of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNFand the National Endowment for the Arts the event will feature Roussos the musical score that was inspired to her Greek Cypriot American background and elements from Byzantine as well as Greek traditional music. Presented in both Greek and English and, Polymnia is the personal as well as political experience of diaspora , an expression of what’s left behind, preserved, and cannot be ignored in light of the Asia Minor Katastrophe. Plain Wood Productions provided this production.
The public is welcome to attend the annual Vasilopita cutting held by the Pan-Rhodian Society of America Apollon in New York. This will take place following the Divine Liturgy as well as Artoklasia in the Sacred Patriarchal and Stavropegial Orthodox Monastery in the diocese of St. Irene Chrysovalantou on Road Avenue Astoria. The service is expected to take place from the morning until around 9:30 AM. For more information please contact us via email at panrhodian.society.ny@gmail.com.
In summary
To sum up, Polymnia – with its score of music that is influenced from Greek Cypriot American tradition and the influence of Byzantine as well as Greek folk music – is a captivating reminder of the legacy of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and its impact on the world of today. Thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and Consulate General for Greece of Greece in Los Angeles, this moving production is possible to show to audiences across the globe. Polymnia, a beautiful fusion of words, music and narrative, is an inspirational reminder of the diaspora’s loss cannot be truly forgotten.
