Greek festival recalls traditions, forms new memories to treasure

As they said on a huge banner at the local Greek festival, “Today we are all Greek.”

Earlier this month I went with my friend, Mary, to this annual fest. As we arrived the music was playing. The band was live and it was very festive indeed.

We were on a mission to get a blue bead bracelet for our friend, Carole, and to enjoy ourselves, of course. We ended up also getting new good luck bracelets for ourselves as well! Mine was a gift from friend Mary and different from the other ones I have because it is silver and sparkly between the blue eye beads. It's good luck because of protection against the evil eye. And I bought some of the high quality, imported Greek olive oil. Two bottles.

Baheej and I went to this same festival every year. It's not far from our house. So lots of happy memories. And, as it turns out, friend Mary has also gone every year. She even has Greek relatives. So we both know the usual schedule, menu and activities.

Well, things had changed a little. But mostly for the good. A huge new main tent was there for the band and lots of tables for lunch under the tent. There was a streamlined food buffet and room under the tent for the dance performances — Greek folk dancing in costumes from the various regions.

The food was outstanding, of course. Homemade by the church ladies. And an array of amazing homemade pastries. We had gyros with all the trimmings. And had the wonderful pastries for dessert. Baklava of course, and the fried dough balls floating in sweet syrup! And cakes and cookies. We took a lot home. And we shopped in the Greek marketplace where we got the bracelets and olive oil.

The point is: These local festivals are a great tradition, full of nice memories with family and friends, very renewing. The only big change was there was no dancing in the afternoon as before. We stayed on an extra hour after lunch to enjoy the dancing, but it didn't happen. The performance had been moved to the evening at 7. Oh well, everything else familiar and great. There's something to be said about familiarity.

And the Dundee Harvest fest will be coming up in early September. Another fun tradition with specialty foods and high quality crafts and music. And there will be Irish folk dancing at that one!

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@comcast.net or see her blog longtermgrief.tumblr.com. See previous columns at www.dailyherald.com/topics/Anderson-Kleif-Susan.