Submitted by Lia Lewis
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church located at 250 Gallows Hill Rd, Westfield, New Jersey, celebrated its tenth annual Greek festival ‘NJ GreekFest 2018’ over 4 days beginning May 31 thru June 3,2018.
The church, which is part of the Metropolis District of New Jersey, was established in 1966, and has been an active member in the Westfield community for over 52 years. Some of Holy Trinity’s faithful come from throughout Union County as well as many other New Jersey counties. Holy Trinity provides liturgical services, religious education, ethnic Greek education, adult and youth ministries, fellowship events, and charitable giving opportunities.
Holy Trinity began hosting their cultural festival to the surrounding communities to express fellowship and outreach. All of Westfield becomes Greek for four days experiencing authentic appetizers, meals, desserts, and wine. A live band plays modern Greek music, and youth dance troupes perform 100+ year old dances in traditional costumes. Parishioners and restauranteurs demonstrated Greek cooking at ‘YiaYia’s Kouzina.’ Holy Trinity donates a portion of its festival proceeds to various non-profit organizations such as the Westfield Rescue Squad and Children’s Specialized Hospital located in nearby Mountainside, NJ.
The Holy Trinity volunteers (a true family) work together to make this cultural event possible. We are grateful to both the many event leaders who worked months in advance to plan the event and the even larger number of parishioner who worked tirelessly over the four-day event to provide festival patrons a true Greek experience.
Lastly, we are grateful to the real attraction at this year’s NJ GreekFest which, in addition to the tasty food, wine, beer, coffee, pastries, is all of you who came out and supported NJ GreekFest 2018.
For more information about Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church please visit holytrinitywestfield.org.
(above) Fr. Peter Delvizis, Christina Colonias, Nico Scerbo, Joe Newman, Mike Chmiel.
Yiayia’s Kouzina
(above) One of the cooking demonstrations during the festival was given by church members Kathy Maglaras of New Providence, and Yiana Leitching of Schotch Plains. Kathy and Yiana were introducted by Yiana’s mother, Avi, 20 years ago and became friends. The two usually bake together, this was the first time they made Spanaopita together, which is a Greek spinach pie, they used Yiana’s mother’s receipie. Both of their families hail from Kalamata Greece.
(above, r-l) Lovebay Michael Okafor from Nigeria, is a student of theology, is staying with George Koutjafies, a resident of Berkeley Heights, during his internship at Overlook Medical center in Summit, New Jersey. Some of Holy Trinity’s faithful come from throughout Union County as well as many other counties.
To see the complete album of this event visit Westfield Greekfest 2018
