Learn about Greek culture, faith at annual festival

If you love baklava, you should be at the Central Georgia Greek Festival.

If you’ve never had baklava — the Greek pastry made of layers of thin, unleavened pastry dough, ground walnuts, sugar and cinnamon topped with honey syrup — then Natalia Saratsiotis said you especially need to be at the festival this weekend to find out just how much you’ll love it.

The annual Greek festival is happening Saturday and Sunday at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church, 859 First St., and there’s a lot more on offer than the baklava.

“We have all kinds of Greek food, desserts, music, dancing and shopping with everything from clothes to artwork and crafts to religious items for sale from all the vendors we have on hand,” said Saratsiotis, who is co-chair of the event along with Mike Cantrell and Jim Lekas.

“We also invite everyone to go on one of the regularly scheduled tours of our church,” she said. “It’s a really good way to see our beautiful church and to learn about the Orthodox faith. Father John (Stefero) does a great job with the tour and many say it’s a highlight of the festival for them.”

Saratsiotis said the festival is an invitation to come learn about Greek life.

“There’s something about us Greeks, we just love to share our traditions and culture and the foods we love,” she said. “If you come to our house, the first thing is we’ll feed you. I guess the main purpose of the festival is to share who we are. We love seeing smiles on faces and don’t want anyone leaving the festival without feeling they’re part of our Greek family.”

Saratsiotis said women of the church cook all the food sold at the event so it’s homemade and authentic. She said money raised goes to a number of Middle Georgia charities and organizations including the Children’s Hospital, Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia, Caring Solutions and the Daybreak Center.

Saratsiotis said Holy Cross has hosted the festival for nine years and it has grown in popularity to an average attendance of about 5,000 throughout a weekend.

“Music is by George Karras, who travels the country singing and playing bouzouki,” Saratsiotis said. “He’s been with us each year. We’ll also have Hellenic dancers from Marietta again this year.”

And, according to Saratsiotis, all the souvlaki, pastitsio, dolmades, spanakopita, Greek salad, gyros, loukoumades, kourambiedes, kataifi, finikia and, of course, baklava, you can eat along with plenty more Greek specialties and treats.

“Plus,” she said, “just when you thought ice cream couldn’t get any better — wait until you try one of our baklava sundaes!”

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Learn about Greek culture, faith at annual festival."