Katie Lenders

Crowd at the festival

September has passed and that means that the annual Greek festival that Saint George’s Greek Orthodox Church holds has as well.

From September 20 to 22 the Church held their festival, which brought together live music, dancing, authentic Greek food and other activities all under one roof. This year marked the 28th year that St. George’s has held the festival, the first one in 1985.

Crowds show up by the dozens, the people attending ranging from first timers to those who have been several times, like myself.

Over the noise of the numerous people chatting is the music from either the live musicians or piped in for the dancers. The dance troupes wear traditional clothing from the Greek islands and on occasion pick people to come on the stage and do a simple dance with them. The more experienced dancers easily picked out, they are usually the ones doing the high kicks, jumps and squats at the same time.

Gyros, pastries or Greek-style dinners are sold under the food tents and sell out quickly. Luckily, there is always someone making sure that no one walks away without any of the delicious food. Among the variety of deserts are baklava and loukoumades. The loukoumadesare fried dough balls drenched in honey then powdered in cinnamon and are one of my favorite deserts.

When you are done eating your fill, the church offers scheduled tours around it and the garden. If you don’t want to take the full tour, you can stop inside the congregation to gape at the massive chandelier, ornate stained glass windows and other religious items on display. Just before you enter the congregation you can light a candle from the others burning in front of paintings on either side of the doors. Inside the church is also a small store where people can by trinkets, jewelry and pottery, among other items.

For the kids there is a face painting station, a blow-up obstacle course and an artist available to draw caricatures. Shoppers can browse through post cards of the Greek islands or buy custom hair ribbons and jewelry.