Festival celebrates food, music and culture of Greece

Everyone is Greek in the Ocean City convention center a few days ago, where thousands will celebrate the Greek music culture, including its music, dancing, food and, obviously, its decadent pastries, throughout the 22nd annual Greek Festival.
Not everybody can go to Greece for vacation, so St. George Greek Orthodox Church tries to bring just a little piece of the nation to the 40th Street venue.
Alexandra Hall, promotions chairperson for that festival, said thousands of guests attend the annual three-day event, the church’s largest annual fundraiser. Some visitors even plan their holidays around it.
Parishioners from the 88th Street church have decorated the convention center with lots of of the country’s flags, posters, blue and white tablecloths and Greek decor.
A number of pre-packaged pastries is available at St. George Greek Orthodox Church’s annual Greek Festival in the Ocean City convention center.
Live music and dancing will start at 5 p.m. each evening.
“It’s rock 'n roll Greek style during the night. It’s when things really get rolling,” Hall said. “It’s for the entire family. Come grab help and just have some fun. Babies to little old ladies take presctiption the party area. Everyone is thanks for visiting take part in the festivities and become Greek for that weekend.”
The Zephyros band will give you classic Greek music nightly, while Evangelakia will demonstrate traditional Greek folk dancing.
Regardless of the musical entertainment lineup, Hall said the largest attraction for visitors may be the authentic Greek cuisine.
“We do as numerous of the authentic Greek dishes once we can. We're really blessed to possess wonderful bakers and cooks as people in the church,” she said.
The men of St. George Church prepare the foodstuff, while the women focus on the pastries. All of the food is homemade in the church by volunteers.
“People come for that food and they stay for that fun, this guitar rock band, the dancing and also the vendors,” Hall said. “They come for supper, then they’ll visit the beach or even the Boardwalk, and come back for lunch.”
Menu items include keftedes (traditional Greek meatballs), dolmathes (grape leaves rolled around spicy ground beef with rice and topped with avgolemono, an egg-lemon sauce), pastitso, (Greek lasagna) and moussaka, a baked dish with eggplant, ground beef, onions, tomatoes and cheese.
Other popular items include spinach pie (spanakopita), tiropita, manestra, ratatouille (fresh seasoned vegetables) along with a half-chicken kotopoulo (marinated with oregano, lemon and seasoning). Salads, gyros, lamb shanks, shish kabobs, Greek sausage and all-beef hotdogs are also available.
To fulfill that sweet tooth, you will see diples (pastry dough fried and drizzled with honey and topped with nuts and cinnamon), walnut cake (karithopita), paximadia (almond biscotti-like cookies) and tsoureki (sweet egg bread), amongst others. And, the festival wouldn't be complete without baklava.
A number of prepackaged pastries may also be available for people who can’t decide on one.
Vendors may also be selling crafts and arts, Greek religious icons and artifacts, jewelry, clothing, music and children’s items.
People to the festival may have the chance to win $5,000. Only 100 raffle tickets is going to be sold at $100 each. Guests can also get the opportunity to collect a $1,000 cash prize or perhaps a Roketa motor scooter.
Greek Festival hours are Friday and Saturday, noon to 11 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. Admission is free of charge each day until 4 p.m. and $3 after. Children 14 and younger are admitted free when combined with an adult.

African Traditions Culture

African Tradition is expressed through a variety of art forms, for example music, dance, art, sculpture and beadwork.
These traditions are deeply ingrained in to the whole African culture.
Many African languages are “tone languages,” and therefore pitch level determines meaning.
Naturally, singing is essential to the African society since the melody and rhythm stick to the intonation from the song text. The songs in many cases are sung in call-and-response form.
In West Africa, a griot is really a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed on from one generation to another. They must be aware of traditional songs and should also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents.
Oral tradition is essential in African culture, because it insures the passage of cultural practices in one generation to a different.
Listening is definitely an equally important skill, that has been perfected through the traditional oral practices. Numerous songs and dances happen to be transmitted by person to person.
Music is really a form of communication also it plays a practical role in African society. Songs accompany marriage, birth, rites of passage, hunting as well as political activities. Music is usually used in different African cultures to defend against evil spirits and also to pay respects to get affordable spirits, the dead and ancestors.
Even though musical styles and instruments change from region to region, there are several common types of musical expression. The most important instrument in African music may be the African drum. It expresses the atmosphere of the people and evokes emotion. The beat from the African drum may be the “heartbeat of the community” and it is rhythm is exactly what holds the dancers together.
Dance is a valuable part of the African culture. also it utilizes symbolic gestures, masks, costumes, body painting and props to speak. The dance movements could be simple or complex with intricate actions including fast rotation, ripples from the body and contraction and release. Dance can be used to express emotion, whether joyful or sorrowful which is not restricted to just the dancers. Often spectators is going to be encouraged to participate in.

The African masks which are used in dances have religious, ceremonial and functional origins. The artist who carves the mask will ceremonially purify himself and provide prayers to his ancestors for guidance before he begins the particular carving from the mask.
The African mask represents a spirit which is believed that the spirit possesses the dancer because they wear the mask. The chosen dancer adopts a trance-like state to be able to receive guidance and wisdom in the ancestors. The dancer will utter and moan the messages received along with a wise man, who accompanies the dancer will translate the content.
Although music and dance are incredibly important African traditions and therefore are very common types of communication, many African people go to town in other artistic representations as well.
The Zulu individuals are well known for his or her intricate beadwork. The color of each bead has a specific meaning. The beads happen to be used to carry messages referred to as “ucu,” a Zulu term loosely translated as “love letters”.
It's an African tradition for girls to send a boy a beaded bracelet of various colours. The boy will court her for some time and at the right time, he'll ask her this is of the beads.
Art and sculpture are prevalent in African culture., and also the most common themes depict a few, a woman and child, a male having a weapon or animal, or perhaps a “stranger.”
Couples are often freestanding figures of the identical size, representing the significance of “two as one.” A men and women couple in African art usually depicts strength and honour instead of love and intimacy, because it is uncommon for African women and men to publicly display their affection.
A parent and child couple can represent “mother earth” and her people or even the strong bond between mother and child.
A mans figure having a weapon or animal, represent honour to departed ancestors. African males are often honoured in warfare and there's a great focus on weaponry in African art, because it depicts survival and power.
Once the stranger is represented in African art, it always depicts someone from the foreign country or tribe that isn't welcomed.