Vasilopita: A New Year Memory

New Year's Day of 1990 was a special treat for me at the home of my friend Diana and her family. I had a stressful year in 1989, undergoing a divorce and moving with my son to a new city. Diana's family embraced me with love and support during that visit. After a hearty meal with black-eyed peas...after all, we were in Virginia, and they are a southern New Year's Day tradition...Diana brought a cake to the table. Being ignorant of Greek Orthodox traditions for January first, I thought it was a regular cake...but I was quite wrong!

The cake was a Vasilopita, a sweet offering to an event that happened in the fourth century AD. There are different versions of the Vasilopita's origin, but they all are similar. 


One year, in Caesarea, there was either a siege or a cruel emperor. There was no food, and the emperor levied an excessive tax upon the people. Each family was forced to give up their coins and jewelry, even precious family heirlooms.


This injustice upset St. Basil who was the archbishop of Caesarea. In one version, St. Basil demanded that the emperor repent, which the emperor did. The coins and jewelry were turned over to St. Basil, but he was confused about their ownership. After much prayer, he decided to bake one huge sweet bread or cake and bake the coins and jewelry into the cake. Each person received a piece of cake and miraculously each person's piece contained the person's own valuables. Each year since that time, the event has been commemorated on January first. 


Modern Vasilopitas contain one coin generally, and the person whose piece contains the coin will be blessed during the upcoming year. The year that I was at Diana's on New Years Day, I received the piece with the coin. I always wondered whether Diana purposely gave me the piece with the coin because she knew that I needed good luck, after just being divorced. 


You can find more information along with the recipe at "The Tradition of the Vasilopita." The image above is also from that website.