The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church hosted its 39th annual Greek Festival on Friday Sept. 26, and Saturday, Sept. 27, welcoming the Asheville community to share the tastes, teachings and traditions of Greece.
“At this Greek Festival it’s all about the music, the dance, the culture, the food and the family. It’s really, really fun,” said Bess Crider, iconography teacher and 13-year member of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. “We also have the church tours with the priest and the iconography lessons, two pieces of the Greek Orthodox faith which are very explicitly talked about.”
Crider teaches an Intro to icons class at the festival to showcase the importance of iconography to Greek Orthodox tradition. The class was open to anyone who wanted to learn more about the icons and its connection between the earthly and the divine. Traveling around the world and seeing icons in places like Russia and Turkey sparked Crider’s adoration of the icon.
“I love the icon. It’s so different from what we know as Western religious art, and even though it has maybe a simplicity about it, it’s very deep and very theological,” Crider said. “It’s also a profound thing. It’s almost like you can’t plumb the depths of it, so I love to talk about it and I love to teach about it.”.
The process of installing iconography for the first time in the dome of the church started this week, which allowed teaching the class at the festival to be more relevant than ever this year. The church will fully reopen in late November to reveal the new iconography to the wider community.
“This community is over 100 years old and the church has waited so long to have this essential thing,” Crider said. “People are excited. It’s been a very long process, and it’s expensive because the Icons on the walls have to be done by a professional Iconographer.”
Church tours were another essential part of the festival. According to Ioannis, alter server to Father John and festival volunteer, the event is about teaching people what the Greek Orthodox church is, as well as acting as a fundraiser for the church and its community.
“This is one of my first festivals in a couple of years, and this year I’m answering all questions about Greek Orthodoxy and the Greek tradition,” Ioannis said. “The event is mostly for Greek people to show their tradition to everybody. We don’t ask people for money. Whoever wants to give money can donate.”
The festival also highlighted Greek food and tradition. The Grecian Cuisine Cooking Demos combined history, language and learning, including the teaching of a traditional Greek folk song.
“We sing this particular song ‘Aman Katerina Mou’ which is a really sweet song about a singer going to the village. He looks in the window and sees Katerina cooking and he’s infatuated with her,” said Katerina Faherty, assistant cook and parishioner of the church.
As the class helped prepare the recipe Katerina cooks in the song, they also learned the Greek names for each ingredient as a way to develop their cooking and language skills. People from all age groups attended the class, including students, with the goal to understand basic elements of Greek and prepare a meal together.
“As an international student from Greece, I love that Asheville has a Greek Festival. It makes me feel close to home,” said Danai Gkogkosi, a mass communication junior at UNC Asheville. “I also think it’s important because, in my opinion, Greece has such a unique culture and history, and it’s nice to share this with people and let them experience a little part of it.”
The Asheville Greek Festival is one of the biggest calendar events for the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. The church also offers weekly Bible study sessions every Wednesday and liturgical services every Saturday and Sunday. For more information and to view the full church calendar, visit htavl.org.
