Anastasia

A Farewell to 2010 and a Warm Welcome to 2011

In my part of the world, in less than 10 hours, we'll be saying farewell to 2010 and welcoming 2011 feeling hopeful and positive that this brand New Year will be much happier, much jollier than 2010 and, most importantly, much more peaceful. As we are all preparing to welcome 2011 regardless of the time difference, let me share with you some of our customs and traditions on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The photo above is my humble "Vasilopita" - Saint Basil's Cake. I didn't have time to bake it myself this year, so I got it from a cake shop. For us Greeks, it is unthinkable to welcome the New Year without our Vasilopita. Saint Basil is our very own Santa Claus who also visits the Greeks on New Year's Eve after Christmas!. So we prepare a cake for him in which we bake a coin. When the cake is cut on New Year's Day, the one who has the piece with the coin in it is the lucky person of the year. The lucky person must put the coin in his / her purse hoping that the New Year will bring them money.

Saint Basil will also visit the Greek children again and put presents under the tree or in their stockings. In Cyprus we've also got what we call "pouloustrina" - a small amount of money given to children on New Year's Day apart from the presents brought by Santa (Saint Basil)..But beyond the material side of the New Year , there's also the sentimental one. On New Year's Eve, the young ladies in the villages of Cyprus, will throw olive leaves into a glowing fire. And they will say: "Please Saint Basil, show me if  X or Y loves me. If the olive leaf burns, it means that the boy named loves the girl! The sad thing is that this romantic tradition is threatened with extinction.

I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. And may all your dreams and wishes come true.

 

Wishes and Regrets

I regret

• being too kind, at times
• not giving up smoking but I'm working on cutting it down
• not reading Bleak House again
• not keeping in contact with all my online friends on various forums due to lack of time
• eating too much Christmas cake but diet starts on Thursday!
• drinking too much champagne, yet I enjoyed every single glass!
• not visiting my family as often as I'd like to

I wish

• a happy and prosperous New Year to everyone
• peace on earth
• love and generosity
• faith and wisdom
• respect in general
• joy and good health
• the end of terrorism
• a better, healthier planet
• love and understanding amongst nations

New Year Resolutions!

 

 

 The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us compile formidable lists of do's and dont's. The same old favourites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, smoke less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully and take the dog for a walk every day ! Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, or stick to an unhealthy eating pattern, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure.

 Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, two years ago I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year 2008, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task.

The daily exercises lasted only 11 minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before Alkis had got up ! The self-descipline required to drag myself out of bed 11 minutes before Alkis got up - that is at about 6:45 am ! Nevertheless, I managed to creep out of bed  into the living-room for 2 days before Alkis found me out ! After jumping about on the carpet and ..twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me !

The next morning , hubby trooped in to watch the performance ! That was really unsettling but I fended off the taunts and jibes good-humouredly and soon Alkis got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned.. The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. Little by little the 11 minutes fell to zero. By January 10th 2008, i was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. Resisting the hypnotising effect of the Internet, I sat in my study for a few evenings, refusing to switch on the PC, with my eyes glued to a book.

One night , however, feeling cold and lonely (Alkis was away on a business trip), I switched on the PC, logged in TypePad....pretending to read Bleak House by Charles Dickens. That proved to be my undoing, for i soon got back to blogging and replying to comments! I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading . ( I used to be an avid reader ! ). In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it will solve my problem, but ...I haven't had time to read it yet ! I will.... sometime in 2010!

Monday's Greek Recipe...on a Tuesday! - Vasilopita

Vasilopita is the Greek New Year's cake. Vasilopita is associated with Saint Basil's Day on January 1^st  in Greece. On New Year's Day families cut the Vasilopita to bless the house and bring good luck for the new year.It is traditional to bake a coin into the Vasilopita (St. Basil's cake). The one who receives the coin is considered to be especially blessed  for the year. A piece of cake is sliced for each member of the family and any visitors present at the time. Slices are also cut for various other people or groups, depending on local and family tradition. They may include St. Basil and other saints, the Virgin Mary, the Church and the poor. In my family, slices are cut for Jesus Christ, for the poor and one slice for each member of the family.  Vasilopita is made in honour of a beautiful act of charity by St. Basil to the poor and needy of his flock. In order to insure that the needy would have money for life's necessities, and knowing that the needy were also proud people, St. Basil had the ladies of his church bake sweet bread with coins baked into them. In this way he could give them money without demeaning them at all.  To this day, many wealthy families would place a gold coin in Vasilopita. It is meant as a gift to the lucky one since in Greece and Cyprus we exchange gifts on New Year’s Day as well! Saint Basil is our Santa Claus like Saint Nicholas in other countries.

 

INGREDIENTS

 

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3  ½  cups flour
• 2-3 tablespoons brandy or Grand Marnier liqueur
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup fresh orange juice
• the zest of 1 orange
• 1 cup yoghurt
• 1 cup almonds finely ground
• 1 coin wrapped in foil
  

 

DIRECTIONS

 

• Beat the butter and the sugar in the mixer until fluffy and then add the eggs one by one beating constantly.
• Mix in the yoghurt and sift the flour and baking powder.
• Continue to beat until the batter is fluid.
• Add the brandy or liqueur, the orange juice and the orange zest and continue to beat.
• Mix the almonds and don’t forget to place the coin in the mixture!
• Place the mixture in a flat, buttered pan and bake in a medium oven for about an hour.
• When cold decorate the Vasilopita with some icing sugar and almonds.

New Year's Photo Blog

Alkis and I decided to spend a couple of days at The Elysium Hotel in Paphos to celebrate the New Year. Paphos - situated on the western coast of the island at about 150 km from Larnaca - combines the beauty of unspoilt wilderness, lovely beaches, and great hotels where the visitor can relax and feel "at home".

 

On our way to Paphos, we stopped at Pissouri Village for lunch. We had already been there on Christmas Eve and loved the place and the food at The Castle Restaurant. It was sunny but freezing after the new snowfalls on the slopes of Troodos, only a few kilometres away.

   

At the Elysium Hotel in Paphos just a few minutes away from 2009.

 

Alkis reflecting on the going year....

   

The festive table

 

The party! 

   

HAPPY NEW YEAR! WELCOME 2009!

MORE PHOTOS

Best Wishes!

In ONE word, what's your warmest wish for 2009?