Annual festival to include Lebanese and Ethiopian foods

LEWISTON – The annual two-day celebration of all things Greek – music, dance, religion and especially food – will grow this year to accommodate more people than ever and include foods from Lebanon and Ethiopia.

“It will still be a Greek Festival,” organizer Peter Robinson said. “But we’re reaching out.” So is the festival sponsor and operator, the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.

For this year’s event, leaders plan to prepare about 3,500 meals, an increase of 1,000 over last year. There will be bigger tents, more parking and a wider variety of food.

Though all the regular menu items will return – from mousaka and spanikopita to gyros and baklava – new booths will include falafel prepared by a local Lebanese family, the Mitris, and a spicy beef or spinach pastry called sanboosa prepared by an Ethiopian family.

The sanboosa, which tastes like a savory Hot Pocket with garlic and peppers, is one of the dishes also sold at the family’s Ethiopian Cafe, which opened two months ago near the intersection of Sabattus and Campus streets in Lewiston.

“We wanted to bring a new traditional food here,” said Hanna Smith, who moved to Lewiston six months ago from Portland. They joined the church and found a ready customer in their new priest, the Rev. Ted Toppses.

“The food is delicious,” Toppses said. “And it’s very savory.”

The dishes will blend with the Greek foods, he said, just as the members of the church blend.

“About 40 percent of our members are Greek,” said Toppses, who leads the Lewiston parish. Many are Franco. Others are Serbs or Russians.

“The orthodox church is the second-largest denomination of Christians in the world,” he said. “We are everywhere there are people.”

As with Hanna’s family, the Lewiston church has grown as new immigrant families arrive.

Since Toppses came in 2001, the church has grown from about 95 families to 140. Only a part of that is from immigrants.

“We’ve had 35 conversions,” Toppses said. That includes spouses of longtime members and people who merely gravitated to the welcoming congregation and the unchanging orthodox message.

Toppses has also worked to make the church more engaging. Soon after he arrived, many services were changed from Greek to English.

Too many people who attended were unable to understand the Greek language, he said.

But the culture remains and will be celebrated this weekend.

As the festival slogan goes, “Once a year, everyone is Greek.”

There will be games for children, a bazaar with books and icons for sale, tours of the church and dancing both nights with lessons. A DJ will play on Friday and a live Greek orchestra will perform on Saturday.

And besides the food, a taverna will serve beer, wine, and a pair of Greek drinks: Metaxa, a brandy, and Ouzo, the licorice-flavored liquor.

Organizers are asking a modest charge for all food, drinks and bazaar items. Admission is free.