University of Pennsylvania Professor Robert Ousterhout delivered the Walton Lecture on Byzantine Constantinople twice this year: at the Gennadius Library in Athens (March 2) and at the Museum of Byzantine Civilization in Thessaloniki (March 4th).
Friends of the Gennadius Library to Celebrate Clean Monday in New York City, February 15, 2010
Save the date for the Library’s Tenth Annual Clean Monday (Καθαρά Δευτέρα) celebration on February 15, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. This year’s event will be held at Molyvos, 871 Seventh Avenue, New York City. Chef Jim Botsacos and his staff will prepare special Lenten cuisine and Diane Kochilas, one of the foremost authorities on Greek cuisine, will be joining the festivities as an honored guest. In addition, a special gift will be given to all guests, Lenten Specialties…Recipes for Fasting in Style, a collaboration between Ms. Kochilas and Chef Botsacos. We are pleased again to have Grigoris Maninakis and the Mikrokosmos Ensemble entertain us.
This year’s honorary patrons are Ambassador of Greece to the United States, Mr. Vassilis Kaskarelis and Mrs. Anna Kaskarelis. Since 2001, the Trustees of the Gennadius Library have brought this traditional Greek Lenten celebration to New York to benefit the Library.
Invitations will be distributed at the beginning of the new year. For more information and to reserve a seat or table contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 609-683-0800 ext. 14.
Clean Monday, the first day of Lent on the Orthodox calendar, is a national holiday in Greece. In the traditional celebration, families take to the countryside to fly kites, and then sit down to a feast prepared without the use of meat, dairy products or fish (except for fish roe, shellfish, octopus and squid).
Digitally tinted image from J. Stuart & N. Revett, Les Antiquités d’Athènes, Paris, 1812,
v. III, Chap. II, pl. XVI, in the collection of the Gennadius Library