Need a New Year's Day tradition? Vasilopita ...

Darla · **Posted:** Thu Dec 31, 2015 6:30 pm

In the Greek church/culture, it's tradition to make vasilopita tomorrow ... St. Basil's bread or cake. Here's the story:

One year, during a time of terrible famine, the emperor levied a sinfully excessive tax upon the people of Caesarea. The tax was such a heavy burden upon the already impoverished people that to avoid debtors' prison each family had to relinquish its few remaining coins and pieces of jewelry, including precious family heirlooms. Learning of this injustice upon his flock, St. Basil the Great, the archbishop of Caesarea, took up his bishop's staff and the book of the holy Gospels and came to his people's defense by fearlessly calling the emperor to repentance. By God's grace, the emperor did repent! He canceled the tax and instructed his tax collectors to turn over to St. Basil all of the chests containing the coins and jewelry which had been paid as taxes by the people of Caesarea. But now St. Basil was faced with the daunting and impossible task of returning these thousands of coins and pieces of jewelry to their rightful owners. After praying for a long time before the icons of our Master Christ and His All-Holy Mother, St. Basil had all the treasures baked into one huge pita. He then called all the townspeople to prayer at the cathedral, and, after Divine Liturgy, he blessed and cut the pita, giving a piece to each person. Miraculously, each owner received in his piece of Vasilopita his own valuables. They all joyfully returned home, giving thanks to God who had delivered them from abject poverty and to their good and holy bishop St. Basil the Great! In remembrance of that miracle wrought by God as a result of St. Basil's love and defense of his people, Orthodox Christians have observed the tradition of the Vasilopita each year on January 1st-- the date on which St. Basil reposed in the Lord in the year 379.

Our daughter is making ours in the morning. (Our church has a midnight St. Basil's liturgy, so they'll cut the vasilopita there, but two midnight services in one week is a bit daunting!)

Article w/one recipe (there are many!): http://www.antiochian.org/node/18684 .... my daughter uses almond and orange extracts in place of the Greek ingredients we can't get.

Anna1111 · **Joined:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:14 pm **Posts:** 8115

How did it go, Darla? I'd love to see a pic of your DD's Vasilopita!

I tried to decorate mine in the traditional fashion this year (I'm not normally the decorating sort, but we had an unexpected transportation-related delay right before we cut it, and so I had a few minutes) As it happened, I made the frosting a little too soft and the "2016" dripped :oops:

But, we all enjoyed it anyway

Our Priest (whose patron is St. Basil) served the Vasilopita his wife made for coffee hour, and one of our guests brought 2 more varieties, so in all we had FOUR different Vasilopites for New Years! I guess I shouldn't have eaten anything ELSE

- but I did of course! :lol:

Darla · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2016 12:11 am

Here's a photo of the one my daughter made for our family on Jan. 1. Because we have the midnight liturgy on Dec. 31/Jan. 1 (and not a whole lot of people go to that), we also do one at church the Sunday following, today, and she also made the vasilopita for that. It took a few tries to get it right this time and then when Father was done cutting it up -- and no one got a coin -- she realized it must not have made it out of the bowl when she poured the batter into the pan! (The last attempt was a cake type one, not a yeast bread one.) So now she's going to make one for next weekend, too! She's going to be vasilopita'd out!!

Anna1111 · **Joined:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:14 pm **Posts:** 8115

Wow - it's BEAUTIFUL, Darla! : )
What a gifted DD you have!

Our Church does the *big* Vasilopita fest on a Sunday in early or mid-January. It's a fund raiser for the St. Basil Academy - our national Children's home. They've asked volunteers to bake extras for that this year, but I haven't yet decided if I'm going to make another one.

It's great that your DD is such a gifted baker : )

Darla · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2016 1:36 pm

Anna, she's a great cook! She actually cooks 95% of the meals/food here (and I'm not exaggerating) and she's very skilled and creative. Plus she loves it. It's been such a huge blessing to our home!

Anna1111 · **Joined:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:14 pm **Posts:** 8115

That's great - she'll have quite a good skill in life after cooking every day for a large family.

It often occurs to me when I cook for guests that I'm only feeding the same number of people that you feed *every day, every meal!* I had no idea that your DD did so much of it - that's wonderful : )

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