Dinner and Dancing with Helen and Constantine

Nobody goes away hungry from the Hellenic Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saints Constantine and Helen at 14 Magazine Street. If the dinner is more than you can eat at one time, you can deal with that by dancing a lot.

“All the cooking is done by volunteers—they start coming in at least three weeks in advance to prepare everything,” says George G. He too is a volunteer at the church; he'd rather we didn’t use his last name. "You wouldn’t believe how many people it takes to put this festival on every year."

For the dancing, you don't need a partner; you don’t even have to know the steps, though you might want to watch for a few minutes first. Tip: If you don’t know a syrto from a kalamatiano, don’t start at the head of a line; go for the middle.

Or take to the floor by yourself and improvise. If you’re lucky, the white-haired lady with dark glasses who knows every dance will grab your hand as she goes by, and she’ll show you which foot goes in front. Little kids prance around in the middle or at the edges, along with people who are trying out their own moves. Some dances are for men—often solo or two at a time—and some are for women, but anybody can play.

This year the week-end event was held June 19-21. Saturday evening was balmy, and the dinner-time crowd spilled out from the big tent to fill tables and chairs in the street. Out there you could listen to the Makridis band, talk to your neighbors, check out the lines for the raffle and the dinner, watch the dancing, keep an eye on the kids busily clearing tables, and chat with Father Asterios as he circulated in the crowd and handed out menus.

Menu items included roast lamb and souvlaki, moussaka, pastichio, filo-wrapped spanakopita and tyropita, and lokanico, a home-style Greek sausage.

“We had Greek beer, and wine from Kambas,” George G. adds. Metaxa and ouzo were available, along with soft drinks and water.

Desserts included baklava; loukoumades (doughnut-like balls deep-fried on the spot and doused with honey syrup and cinnamon), a super-creamy rice pudding called ryzogalo, and more.

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Saint Constantine was emperor of Rome in the 4th century. He led Roman military forces in Britain and in Europe. Influenced by his pious mother Saint Helen, he put an end to the persecution of Christians and was baptized.