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Our Big Fat Greek Festival

Get a taste of authentic Greek culture at the annual Epiphany celebration.

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

The statue of a lone cross diver is silhouetted against a cloudy sky in front of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tarpon Springs. The area has a long and deep history of Greek sponge divers.

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN | The Tampa Tribune
and KEVIN WALKER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2009

TARPON SPRINGS - Yes, we have Gasparilla, the Clearwater Jazz Holiday and baseball spring training.

But here's something that should be on your must-do list if you live in the Tampa Bay area: the annual Epiphany celebration that comes to Tarpon Springs every Jan. 6.

It's the largest festival of its kind in the United States — possibly in the world, say local organizers. If there's a bigger Epiphany party somewhere else, they don't know about it.

It's a Mediterranean mix of centuries-old religion, rich culture, native music, homemade food and rollicking entertainment. The daylong extravaganza opens on a spiritual note with a Greek-language Divine Liturgy in the stunning St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, one of the area's most beautiful churches. It ends in the city's community center with a foot-stomping dance and food fest in the way only Greeks know how to party.

The celebration draws an average of 15,000 people every year and gives Tarpon Springs a chance to strut its stuff. Surely this is the best way to experience one of Florida's jewels — an authentic and thriving Greek community on the coast. Don't miss the world-famous sponge docks and the dozens of shops filled with specialty items.

Good weather is always a plus, but officials aren't taking a chance this year. Typically held outside in Craig Park adjacent to the Spring Bayou, the festival was moved indoors. Nothing can rain on this parade.

FOOD

Sure, it's a festival with religious underpinnings. And there's music and dance. But if you've ever been to any kind of Greek festival, you know what it's really about: the food.

Greek food is unique, tasty and, well, sort of hard to pronounce. Luckily for us, Johanna Kossifidis, a spokesperson for the Epiphany celebration, agreed to list some of the dishes available at the festival, and even told us how to pronounce them.

That'll be useful information when you arrive at the festival and want to order food at the Glendi or at the numerous Greek restaurants along the sponge docks. This is a rare opportunity to sample a variety of the best Greek dishes in one place, cooked by people (i.e. the people of Tarpon Springs) who know what they are doing.

Here's a sampling of what's in store:

Gyros (YEAR-os)

The famous Greek sandwich, it contains strips of seasoned meat rolled up inside pita bread, with Greek yogurt — garlic with cucumber sauce.

Souvlaki (soo-VLA-kee)

Seasoned and marinated tenderloin cubes with onions and peppers, prepared on a grill.

Tiropita (tee-ROH-pee-tah)

A cheese-filled puff pastry. Simple and delicious.

Spanakopita (spa-nah-KOH-pee-tah)

Basically a tiropita, with spinach added.

Baklava (bach-la-VA)

Arguably the greatest dessert ever created, it is layers of filo pastry, with nuts, butter and spices layered between the thin pastry slices. And then the whole thing is covered with honey syrup. Genius.

Dolmades (dole-MAH-thez)

Stuffed grape leaves.

Moussaka (moo-sah-KAH)

This is where things get a bit heavier. This is sliced eggplant, baked in a ground beef sauce, and then smothered in a thin béchamel white sauce.

Pastitsio (pa-STEE-chio)

Greek lasagna. A pasta and cream sauce mixture layered with meat sauce (Kossifidis calls this a "staple of Greek households").

Kourambiedes (koo-rem-BEE-eh-thez)

Butter cookies with toasted almonds, topped with powdered sugar.

Finikia (fin-NEE-kee-ah)

Honey cookies, spiced in various ways, and then topped with nuts.

Koulourakia (koo-loo-RHA-kee-ah)

Twisted butter cookies (Kossifidis suggests dunking them in coffee)

Loukoumades (loo-koo-MAH-thez)

Honey puffs.

MUSIC & DANCING

What's with the Greeks and dancing?

It seems like every Greek wedding, movie and celebration includes the whirling bodies and spinning feet of exuberant revelers in colorful native costumes. This joyous expression of movement is ingrained deeply in the culture, with most folk dances dating back to ancient times.

Ready to head to war? There's a dance to ensure victory. Want to guarantee your wife will get pregnant? Yep, try that fertility number. Greeks dance to overcome depression, cure illness and to tell a story.

"Greeks dance. It's in our blood," says Johanna Kossifidis of Tarpon Springs. "We can't help ourselves."

The 36-year-old mother of two has been dancing since first grade; her 9-year-old daughter, Anna, is already following in her footsteps. Her favorite: a six-step circle dance with both men and women held at the wrist called "Lontzia," which loosely means "the square of the village." Every time Kossifidis sees it or performs it, she is instantly transported to the town of her ancestors in the mainland region of Peloponnesus.

There will be plenty of dancing on display during the Epiphany festival onstage in Theofilos Hall — and probably anywhere else the mood strikes.

RELIGION

As far as parties go, this is a big one.

But lest anyone forget, the Epiphany festival celebrates one of Christianity's most defining moments: the baptism of Jesus Christ by St. John the Baptist in the River Jordan.

It brings to Tarpon Springs a list of who's who from the Greek Orthodoxy — Archbishop Demitrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Bishop Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta and Bishop Demetrios of Xanthou. After morning services in the grand cathedral, the Archbishop will lead a procession down to the Spring Bayou with schoolchildren in traditional costumes, choir members and Greek folk dance groups.

Thousands of visitors on blankets and folding chairs surround the bayou, watching as a young Greek woman releases a white dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit. The Archbishop then casts a white cross into the chilly waters. Next comes the moment captured every year by media outlets and amateur photographers all over the Tampa Bay area: Some 60 Greek male teens, balancing themselves as they anxiously stand on a dozen or so rocking rowboats, noisily dive in. Only one emerges victoriously with the cross, and he will receive a special blessing for the year.

EVENT PREVIEW

Tarpon Springs Epiphany Celebration

WHAT: Annual Greek cultural and religious festival

WHEN: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 17 E. Tarpon Ave.; Craig Park, one block west of Alternate U.S. 19 and Tarpon Avenue; Spanos-Pappas Community Center's Theofilos Hall, 348 N. Pinellas Ave., Tarpon Springs

HOW MUCH: Free admission

SCHEDULE: 8 a.m. — Orthros/Matins at St. Nicholas Cathedral; 9:30 a.m. — liturgy at St. Nicholas

Noon — blessing of the waters by Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Bishop Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta; 12:30 p.m. — traditional procession with clergy, altar servers, visiting dignitaries, school children dressed in traditional Greek costumes, band and choir; dove bearer will release the dove and the Greek Orthodox male youths will dive for the Epiphany cross in Craig Park

1:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. — Glendi (festival) features music, dancing, food and more at Theofilos Hall, as well as in restaurants and shops along the sponge docks

Michelle Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613 or mbearden@tampatrib.com. Kevin Walker can be reached at (813) 259-7975 or kwalker@tampatrib.com.

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