Annual Greek Summerfest highlights food, culture

July 12, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Many people will be attending a longtime city festival for the food, folklore and fun, but the Rev. Yanni Verginis hopes attendees also will add a greater sense of connectivity to their koulourakia and kataifi.

“It’s important to remind people that the festival supports what we do in here,” said Father Verginis, pastor of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church near downtown. “Prayer and worship come first, and everything flows from the experience of God.”

He was referring to the 30th annual Greek Summerfest, which offers numerous homemade specialty ethnic meals and pastries such as koulourakia, which are Greek twisted butter cookies.

The foods, religious artifacts, church tours and music are to celebrate and promote Greek traditions, customs and culture, noted Pete Kalogeras, festival chairman.

The four-day festival, which began Thursday, continues from noon to 6 p.m. today at St. Nicholas Church, 220 N. Walnut St.

The gathering offers a smorgasbord of a la carte meals, including pastitsio (baked macaroni and ground beef with a cream sauce); moussaka (layered eggplant, beef and potato); and spanakopita (thin layers of filo pastry stuffed with cheeses and spinach).

Those with a desire for something a bit sweeter likely enjoyed pastries such as baklava (layers of buttered filo, walnuts and cinnamon baked with a honey syrup), galaktoboureko (custard baked in filo dough with honey), kataifi (shredded filo with walnuts and soaked in syrup), finikia (oval cinnamon cookies dipped in syrup) and pasta flora (a fruit-filled torte covered with lattice crust).

On Saturday, Kalogeras also noted that new to the longtime festival is the Greek Goya Group, a troupe of young dancers in middle and high school. Another addition is something called Mythos beer, he continued.

“It’s a Greek beer with a taste that will leave you thinking you were in Greece,” Kalogeras added.

Father Verginis conducted several tours of the church, founded in 1919, that focused largely on its roots. The narthex, worship area and altar were the main features, said Father Verginis, adding that many of St. Nicholas Church’s arrangements are patterned after Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

Similarly, Gus Mavrigian and his son, Mark Mavrigian, were selling a variety of religious items such as wooden crucifixes and necklaces for $1 each, along with framed icons of St. Nicholas and the Virgin Mary for $20 each.

Also for sale were incense, compact discs and beads with large painted eyes said to ward off evil spirits, explained Mark Mavrigian, whose father was baptized at St. Nicholas Church about 80 years ago.

Those who came to the festival Friday and Saturday enjoyed Greek and American music, courtesy of Pittsburgh-based Alpha and Omega.

The event gives people another opportunity to further appreciate and respect others’ cultures, faiths, traditions, customs and foods, noted Socrates Kolitsos, the congregation’s president.

“It expands their horizons,” Kolitsos said, adding the fest continues to grow yearly for the city’s increasingly diverse population.

Today’s offerings will feature church tours and music from Kosta Pizanias, a disc jockey from Campbell.