The Greeks can put up a festival with the best of them, and they did in mid-February. A fabulous way to break up the winter blahs…
Sponsored by the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Port Charlotte, Fl, these three day festival is one of the very best in southwest Florida and is into its 27th year of presentation.
Greek dance lessons, Grape stomping, Church tours, authentic 2nd and 3rd generation Greeks doing their native dances, and of course, no festival is complete without its native cultural foods. In this case, souvlaki, lokanikos (sausage on pita), moussaka (layered egg plant with ground beef), baklava, Loukoumathes (honey balls), Greek salad, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), spanakopita (spinach pie), just to name a few of the dishes being sold…we had many of the dishes…we rave about the lamb shanks oven roasted slowly with basil and oregano, done to perfection. The women of the parish did all the cooking and they really knew their way around a Greek kitchen…outstandingly delicious.
The Greek costumed dancers, both age groups, children and adults, were another story. Look closely at the floor on which they are dancing in the videos. It looks like blotches of paper. Close, they are dollar bills. People would walk out onto the dance floor and toss down money as a donation to the charity of the church that was sponsoring the event. Marvellous idea, great generosity making the choreography into a dollarama dance. Terrific !
Here are a couple of videos of the dancing and a few photos from the terrific Greek Festival:
GREEK DANCERS 1
GREEK DANCERS 2
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