This year, the Cathedral School Parent's Association organized a traditional celebration of Tsiknopempti (last Thursday allowing the consumption of meat before the Great Lent) at the Cathedral’s Cultural Center. It was a festive way to bring alive the Hellenic Spirit and to reconnect with our past. Another important objective was to help raise funds to support the Cathedral School Greek program, benefiting both the day and afternoon schools.
The evening was the brainchild of Athanasia Filios, who not only has nurtured Hellenic pride as a Greek Language teacher at the Cathedral School, but through her volunteer work at Cosmos FM, as well as Director of the Choir of Demotic Folk Songs, she has dedicated her life to help keep alive and to pass on our rich Greek heritage to the next generation and to the community at large.
Entertainment during the evening was provided by virtuoso and internationally acclaimed performer Lefteris Bournias on clarinet along with a traditional Greek music ensemble as well as performance of Apokreatika (Carnival) Songs by the Greek Choir of Folk Songs.
Carnival started in ancient times as a celebration to Dionysus, the god of Wine and Feast. During Apokries (Greek Mardi Gras) the Greeks celebrate Tsiknopempti. Literally translated as the "Thursday of meat grilling," Tsiknopempti is a celebration of the meat many will forgo for the 40 days of Lent. In Greece, city and town governments arrange barbecues and grill meat in the town squares. This year poignantly, the same was done with food donated in order to feed the growing number of hungry and poor citizens. Tsiknopempti is also about music and traditional songs which sarcastically comment about old age, comically recount domestic disputes and other more risqué topics with adult subject matter, best left to imagination.
