Vasilopita – The Story Behind the Greek New Year’s Cake
The Vasilopita takes its name from Saint Basil (Vassilios) of Caesarea, whose name day is celebrated on the first of January; New Year’s Day.
Legend has it that Saint Basil (330 AD-379 AD), Bishop of Caesarea (in Cappadocia a province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia modern central-eastern Turkey) suggested to his citizens that maybe they could find it in their hearts, to raise money to prevent the siege of the city by the Romans.
Without hesitation the citizens of Caesarea agreed.
They would do anything possible to save their city from the Romans even if it meant living in poverty.
Each one them donated whatever they could in gold and jewelry.
The Romans were so astonished by this unselfish act of giving they forgot all about the siege and never even took the valuables gathered up by people of Caesarea.
This left Basil with a dilemma; how was he to return these treasures to their owners, who had given what?
This is when Basil had an “Epiphany moment”; he would bake loaves of bread, lots of them and within each loaf would be concealed items of jewelry and gold and distribute them amongst his people.
At least in this way they would receive something back.
Whether or not it was the exact items they had given, was all down to luck.
Miracles do Happen
You’ll never guess what happened next!
By some twist of fate, or miracle, each citizen received exactly what they given!
(In some versions of the story the threatened siege is replaced with the emperor placing extortionate taxes upon the people, or it’s just Saint Basil’s way of giving charity to the poor without embarrassing them).
Vasilopita Today
With time Vasilopita has evolved from simple sweetened bread into any type of cake, simple or luxurious, which contains a lucky coin; the Flouri.
The cake is usually topped with icing sugar, to represent the snow of winter, then decorated with anything to your liking.
More often than not the date of the New Year will year will be displayed on top of the cake.
Traditionally the cake is cut at midnight on New Year’s Eve by the head of the family which in my case is MGG – My Greek God
Cutting the Vasilopita
Vasilopita is not cut into any old way the protocol is as follows:
The Vasilopita is scored with the sign of the Cross; the first slice goes to Jesus Christ, the second to The Virgin Mary, the third to Saint Vassilios, the fourth to the family house and from then on, in order of age, to each member of the family.
Now and again, if a darling little granddaughter is involved, there may be a slight of hand during the cutting of the cake!
Whoever finds the coin will be blessed with good luck, health and happiness for the coming year.
Greek New Year’s cake
When it comes to preparing vasilopita; (the “pita”, at the end of the word, can mean a loaf of bread, a cake, or even a pie), there are no hard and fast rules; anything goes.
As long as you have a cake, concealing a coin, to cut that’s all that really matters.
Usually it’s a simple sponge cake or tsoureki, Greek sweet brioche style bread with Greek spices added to the mixture.
Below are a few of my Greek New Year’s cakes I’ve produced over the years.
I’m rather pleased with them, more importantly, so were my family!
Xronia Polla (Happy New Year…Greek style).
Related Greek Christmas customs and traditions:
Kallikantzaroi – Christmas Goblins
Greek Christmas sweets: Kourabiedes, melomakarona etc
Kalanda: Greek Christmas carols