The Feast Day of St. Laurence

"Mommy," Faviana asks me, "what is a Name Day? Is it when they give you a new name?" I replied, "No, it's when they celebrate the one you have."


The feast day of St. Laurence is usually celebrated on August 10th but since there are so many Laurences in our surrounding villages, Lori celebrates his on the evening of August 9th.

His house is located about 4 kilometers past our village on the way to Koris tis Pirgos. Lori's house is quite nice and fairly new. It not only has a house but a beautiful stone church as well on his property. His nameday celebration is very popular and many people come to wish him well.

A normal name day is when you set up a table with sweets and alcohol and whoever remembers that it's your nameday calls or shows up at your house to wish you Χρόνια Πολλά (Many years) and you offer them the sweets and drink.

Lori's celebration is quite different. He has enough food and drink to serve the masses and actually resembles more like a wedding feast than a typical nameday celebration. The liturgy started at 7 pm at his church. Pater Rihardo was at the ready to lead the service. When the liturgy started there were a few people spilling out of the church. By the end of the liturgy there were people crowding most of the grounds. His house is situated far atop the hill and has a beautiful view of the ocean and Draconisi (Dragon Island), a small island off Kolymbithra Beach. The caterers, Mesklies, had already set up their tables and chairs along the perimeter, in the threshing pit, and parts of the drive. The tables had wine glasses and place settings and their catering tables were loaded with food. There was salad, Tinian fresh cheese, Tinian dried sausage (louza), chicken in cream, meatballs, vegetable lasagna, and various Tinian deserts like pasteli, mandolato, tiropitakia.

As soon as the liturgy ended, people sat down at the tables and the servers came by with wines, sodas, beers and various deserts as starters. As soon as the buffet table opened, a long line formed. There was plenty of food and drink and lots of conversation and merriment. The loudspeakers had 'nisiotika' (island music) playing and some people got up to dance. At one point, Dad, Theio Yianni, and Fragkisko were singing to the music. People started to drift slowly away after dinner but Lori asked them to stay for loukoumades, which were being delivered from Hora. The loukoymades were yet to arrive but we eventually left around 11 pm and there were still many people. We never did eat loukoymades but the good thing with Name Days --there's always next year!