It can cod with garlic to have its honor every March 25thbut where did the custom come from and how did we get to this taste habit?
Great Lent is the oldest and strictest period of fasting for the Orthodox Church.
Since its establishment, around the 4th century AD, fasting has been prescribed according to monastic standards, with the faithful eating only once a day and that following 3 pm.
During the period of Lent, fasting is catalyzed, i.e. differentiated, three times, giving the faithful an opportunity for empowerment, since this fasting is the strictest, since even oil is not allowed.
The first of these exceptions is made for the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, as March 25th has been established.
It is a joyous holiday in the mourning period of Lent and because it is a feast of the Mother of God, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and therefore particularly important for the solitary formalities, fish, oil and wine are allowed.
What does cod symbolize?
Traditional message of the day of the Annunciation (March 25), which now has a double meaning for Hellenism, as it has coincided since 1838 with the celebration of the Revolution of 1821, it is the cod and indeed with garlic.
The explanation for this taste habit is quite simple and has mainly to do with it inability of inland residents to procure fresh fish immediately and economically.
Although cod is not a “Greek” fish, as it is mainly found on the coasts of the North-East Atlantic, the fact that it is salted makes it a cheap and easy-to-preserve food.
Cod arrived on the Greek table around the 15th century and was immediately established as the national food of March 25, as, with the exception of our islands, fresh fish was a luxury for the poor inhabitants of mainland Greece.
So the salted cod, which did not need special maintenance, was the easy and cheap solution, a custom that continues to this day.
Skordalia with a long history
In the Ionian Islands, skordalia is also called aliada (but also agiada, based on the local pronunciation) which is a loan from the Venetian (agliata in today’s Italian). It seems that the combination of the words “garlic” and “aliada” gave rise to the type skordaliada and from there, simply put, today’s “skordalia”. At least this etymology is given by both the LNKN and the Etymological of Babiniotis.
The ancients also made something like garlic, of course, and one of the words they had was “mittotos”. Again in the Acharnei, at the beginning of the play, Diciopolis has with him a bag of garlic that the Thracian mercenaries, the Odomantes, grab from him, and he is full of himself for the garlic he was going to make (Oimoi talas, mittotnos osso alosi)
When we want to say that something is missing its most essential, critical ingredient, we say it looks like “garlic without garlic.”
Garlic is Allium sativum, chromion skorodon and, although it is native to Central Asia, it has been in our parts for a long time, since, as Herodotus mentions, the workers who built the Pyramid of Cheops had in their ration onions, garlic and radishes.
But garlic was also very widespread in ancient Greece, as can be seen from its presence in the comedies of Aristophanes – the Megarite garlics were famous for their large size and in the Acharnians, which are written during the Peloponnesian War, the Megarite complains to Diciopolis that the Athenians in their raids uprooted them.
In ancient times it was called skorodon, but already from the classical era, the skordon type also appears, which eventually prevailed.
Garlic was and is the food of the poor, even more so in ancient times, when the diet was much poorer than today. It was still a basic element in the soldiers’ rations, which is why the ancients had the proverbial phrase “me garlic (eat)” meaning not to get involved in adventures.
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