I love Koulourakia!! Especially with a bit of orange zest
they're my favoriteI love Koulourakia and Kouloura both. Orange zest in koulourakia makes it so delicious! The Kouloura breads are always a staple in my house at Easter.I love Koulourakia!! Especially with a bit of orange zest
At my house too! I wish I made them more often tbh
Could you share the words? I have never sung it! I make these every Easter, they are a tradition in my household...
Sure.
In my native town, in Magna Graecia [south Italy], there used to be the tradition of making Cullura (Koulura) for easter. It was sweetbread or bun with an egg baked in it. A greater variety of sweets was made for Palm Sunday, like pretzels etc., when they were attached to a palm-branch and taken to church. Little toys and crosses were also made by interweaving palm fronds. //Speaking of feasts and traditions, I remembered that the 8th of September used to be, in my town, the feast of MyLady of Graces, to whom a rustic shrine was dedicated, while outdoors a fair was held: merchants from town and other towns brought their wares and even animals (cattle) for sale. On this date, the Church officially celebrates the Birth of the Virgin Mary. The shrine is in a district of the township that must have been the civic center of the newly founded town of Thourioi and may have been a replica of the shrine dedicated to Athena Krathia (reported by Herodotus). When the people switched to Christianity, the rededication inevitably occurred. Athena was born out of Zeus' head, Mary was born normally, but by a miracle from Ann and Joachim. // I miss the ice cream I used to buy at the Fair.
This is so cool - I am going to try to sing this song next tie I make this!! My mother used to sing a song like this but I never knew the words...
Yes! Let's keep these traditions alive
I totally agree, too many are being forgotten.Yes! Let's keep these traditions alive
As I have been investigating words, since my retirement, now I wondered about the origin of the name "Koulourakia"or, in my native language, "koulloura/kouddroura". Wikipedia does not help; so, I turned to a lexikon, the Liddlell-Scott "A Greek-English Lexikon" and then the Bailly "Greek-French Dictionary", which report the literature source of the Classical Greek words. Bailly cites "Koulloura", which is described as a small oval loaf of bread,or roll, sweetened, especially for infants. Thus, the tradition in question goes back to pre-Christian times, and obviously, the insertion of an egg (in larger rolls) must be specifically from Easter or egg/myth times. "Koulourakia" may be also a classical word, meaning "koulloura stuff" through the adjective *Koullourakios (which needs confirmation). Good stuff!
koulouraki comes from the word koulouri. Try searching that. "aki" just means little in Greek. The bread with the egg in it is called tsoureki
Thank you for your suggestion. However, I think we are a bit confused about Greek -- ancient/classical and modern Greek. For instance, I don't find "coulouri" in vocabulaties/lexikons of classical Greek. Did some etymologist propose it hypothetically as the source of the modern Koulouraki? Furthermore, I don't find AKI as either one of the adjectives for "little", or as a diminutive-making ending, whereas -ION is the typical classical diminutive ending. I was wishing that the lexikons had "tsureki", since it would show the difference from Kolix [= a roll or loaf of coarse bread], which Durrell-Scott equates with Kollouros. Incidentally, some of the classical words have variants, wherefore they are spelled with either one or two L, and the initial syllable is either KOU- or KO-, but Kolouros (= fallen off, troncated) is obviously a homophone of, not identical with, the aforementioned Kollouros.
Really? So then how come Greeks add "Aki" to make everything "little"?
Everything you're saying is over my head. For ancient Greek I'll need my wife... she studied it from middle school through high school (in Greece) and was forced to learn 1000s of words and learn the grammar. I, on the other hand, just know how to speak Greek and that's it haha. "Aki" is a suffix and it has several meanings. Adding "aki" to the word can mean "little" (e.g. skilo -> skilaki = puppy) but it can also be a term of endearment (giannis -> giannaki = little john/johnny). You could probably google "what does 'aki' mean on Greek" and find an explanation.
As you speak (modern) Greek, your information about the suffix -aki, and similar information I have just found, expands my acquaintance with the modern language, but as an etymologist I am still uncertain about its provenance; I still suppose it arose from the classical adjective *koulourAKIOS or KoullourAKIOS. I also found that some other diminutive or endearing terms are present also in derived dialects, such as Latin and my native language. The Greek linguistic ekoumene is immense!
Kind of going over my head as well LOL
greekcitytimes.com
