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Kollyva

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[[Image:Orthodoxer Gottesdienst.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Postcard, undated (ca.1916), showing an Orthodox service with the blessing of Kollyva.]]
{{spirituality}}
'''Kollyva''' (Greek: ''' ''Κολλυβα,'' ''' (kólliva); Serbian: ''' ''кољиво,'' ''' (koljivo); Romanian: ''' ''colivă'' '''; Bulgarian: ''' ''коливо,''' '' (kolivo); Ukrainian and Russian: ''' ''Kutya'' ''' (or Kutia)) is an offering of boiled wheat that is blessed liturgically in connection with the '''[[Memorial Services]]''' in Church for the benefit of one's departed, thereby offering unto [[God]], as it were, a sacrifice of propitiation (atonement) for the dead person, and in honor of the Sovereign [[Lord]] over life and [[death]].<ref>[http://www.stlukeorthodox.com/html/parishinfo/commemorationofthedeparted.cfm Recipe For Kutya (Koliva)---Alaskan Tradition]. St. Luke the Evangelist Orthodox Church (Palos Hills, IL).</ref>
While recipes may vary widely, the primary ingredient in today's Kollyva consists of wheat kernels which have been boiled until they are soft. These are usually mixed with a variety of ingredients which may include pomegranate seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, ground walnuts, cinnamon, sugar, raisins, anise and parsley.
The Kollyva mixture is then placed on a platter and shaped into a mound or cake, to resemble a grave. The whole is then decorated with a powdered sugar covering, often with Jordan almonds, raisins , or other sweets decoratively placed on the surface. A [[cross]] is traced or created with the sweets on the top, and on its sides are placed the initials of the departed for whom the memorial is held. A candle, usually often placed in the center of the Kollyva, is lit at the beginning of the [[Memorial Services|requiem service]] and extinguished at its end; the candle symbolizes the light wherewith the Christian is illumined in [[Baptism]], and also the light of the world to come, which knows no setting.
Some Orthodox parishes have a designated individual charged with making the Kollyva. This is in part due to the health risk of fermented wheat if the Kollyva is not prepared correctly.
The association between [[death]] and life, between that which is planted in the ground and that which emerges, is deeply embedded in the making and eating of Kollyva. The ritual food passed from [[paganism]] to early Christianity in [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]] and later spread to the entire Orthodox world.
===St . Theodore Saturday===
The tradition of blessing and eating Kollyva at the end of the first week of [[Great Lent]] is connected with an event in the reign of [[Julian the Apostate]] in 362 AD. The tradition states that the Emperor knew that the Christians would be hungry after the first week of strict [[fasting]], and would go to the marketplaces of Constantinople on Saturday, to buy food. Therefore he ordered that [[Blood in the Bible|blood]] from pagan sacrifices be sprinkled over all the food that was sold there, making it ''"polluted sacrificial food"'' (food "polluted" with the blood of idolatry), in an attempt to force upon the people the [[paganism]] of which he was an ardent supporter.
However St. [[Theodore the Soldier|Theodore of TyreTyro]] appeared in a dream to the Patriarch of Constantinople [[Eudoxius of Antioch|Eudoxios]], ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the market, but rather to boil the wheat (already called ''Kollyva'') that they had at home and eat it sweetened with honey.
As a result, this first Saturday of Great Lent has come to be known as Theodore Saturday. After the service, the Kollyva is distributed to all who are present and, after [[Holy Communion]] and the [[antidoron]], is the first food eaten after the strict fasting of the first week.
The Kollyva then, symbolize the Apostolically rooted hope in the [[resurrection]] of the dead as the only eventuality that gives meaning and attains the longed perfection on the part of the individual who takes his life to be a divinely ordained meaningful living forever.<ref>Rev. Dr. Nicon D. Patrinacos (M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon)). ''A Dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy - Λεξικον Ελληνικης Ορθοδοξιας''. Light & Life Publishing, Minnesota, 1984. pp.225-226.</ref>
The 16th century Archbishop Gabriel of [[Philadelphia(Asia Minor)|Philadelphia]]<ref group="note">Consecrated by Patriarch [[Jeremias II (Tranos) of Constantinople|Jeremias II]].</ref> wrote that the Kollyva are symbols of the general resurrection, and the several ingredients added to the wheat signify so many different virtues.<ref>Chambers, Ephraim (1680-ca.1740). ''[http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&id=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01&entity=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01.p0420&q1=colyba COLYBA].'' In: Cyclopædia, or, An universal dictionary of arts and sciences. 1728. Pg. 266.)</ref>
==Occasions of Use==
==See also==
* [[Memorial Services]] (''Mnemósynon; PanikhidaPannikhida'')
* [[Prayer#Prayer_for_the_dead|Prayer for the Dead]]
* [[Saturday of the Souls]] (''Psychosabbaton'')
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