Memorial Dish - Kolivo (Part 2)

Once the Wheat berry is boiled,

spread it out on clean towels.

My Bulgarian friend explained to me:

In a separate place crush up (triturate) some biscuits/cookies/crackers (they should be lenten now). If you don’t have biscuits/cookies/crackers you can put hard-baked flour ( put one cup flour in a pan an put it on the hot-plate, stir it without interruption until the flour becomes brown).
Mix well the boiled and dried jito with the biscuit’s powder.

I put raisins in,

and plumped them a little bit by pouring some boiling water

over them in a pan.

Watch them that you do not over cook them;

the raisins do not have to be in the water more than 5 - 10 minutes.

I made some hard baked flour

as I did not have cookies;

there is a biscuit called Marie Biscuit

that another Bulgarian uses to sweeten the Kolivo.

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My friend continues:

Put the mix in a bowl and before living for the church cover it with powder sugar (otherwise the powder sugar will melt quickly and wll wet the jito).

On the top of the powder sugar you can put some decoration like a Cross or something else, also you can put some walnuts. The nuts you can put also in the jito/biscuit mix.

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I chose to go without nuts so that I could give out the Kolivo without worry

of anyone having allergies to nuts.

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After the service,

I cut up the bread

and put the Kovlivo in disposable cups with spoons

and handed them out.

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Bulgarians have the priest pour a little bit of red wine

in the bread

(or the Kolivo if the bread is not able to be used).

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You hand the food to the people attending in memory of

your beloved one

and traditionally the response of the person receiving the food is

to the effect of

May God forgive them.

O Thou Who savest fallen Adam and the whole human race from

eternal perdition, O Good One, Thou didst sent Thy Son

into the world, by Whose Cross and Resurrection life eternal hath

dawned on us. Trusting in Thine infinite compassion, we look

for the incorruptible kingdom of Thy glory, we implore Thee to grant

it to our departed loved ones, and we pray Thee:

O Lord, gladden the souls wearied by the storms of life, that they may

forget earthly sorrows and sighings; do Thou harken unto them

in Thy bosom, as a mother hearth her children, and say to them:

Your sins are forgiven you. O Lord,

receive them into Thy blessed, calm haven, open to them the palaces

of the angles and saints, that they may rejoice in Thy divine glory.

O Lord of unutterable love, remember Thy servants

who have fallen asleep!

- Ekos 1 of the Akathist for the Repose of the Departed

from the Book of Akathists Vol 1

published by Holy Trinity Monastery,

Jordonville NY, 1994.

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May Lucia's Memory be Eternal!