Kolyva is a boiled wheat dish, typically mixed with sugar, nuts, pomegranate seeds and spices, prepared in Eastern Orthodox Christian practice for two related fasting-season purposes: it is served on the first Saturday of Great Lent to commemorate a legendary rescue of Christians from a pagan trap forcing them to eat sacrificed food during a fast, and it is offered at memorial services for the dead, where the boiled wheat is read as a symbol of resurrection. Its ingredients are chosen to conform to Lenten fasting restrictions rather than as an ordinary confection.
Facts
Meaning
Symbolic MeaningBoiled wheat sweetened with honey and dried fruit, its sprouting grain read as a symbol of resurrection and eternal life in Orthodox Christian funerary custom. 1 Origins
Origin RegionThe Eastern Orthodox Christian world, most closely associated with Greece and other Orthodox Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean traditions. 1 Use
OccasionGreat Lent (first Saturday) and Orthodox memorial services 1 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Eaten At
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Related To
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Orthodox Christian fasting and memorial customsView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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