New Year's Bread

In the Greek tradition, a sweet New Year's bread is baked and inside the bread is a silver coin. Since the removal of silver from our coins, we now wrap a coin in aluminum foil and bake it into the bread. My brother-in-law Eli bakes this wonderful bread every year. The head of the family slices the bread and in our case it is my mother-in-law. The first slice is for the house, the next is for the head of the family and then for each of her children and their spouse and then their children. My husband is one of 7 siblings so you can imagine there are quite a few pieces of bread!! Whoever gets the coin in their slice is said to have a lucky year. Here is my mother-in-law slicing the New Year's bread. We gather around and name each slice. Our immediate family had slice 13 through 24 but alas we did not get the silver coin.


This year the coin went to the 37th slice, my niece Elizabeth. Here is YiaYia with the lucky slice. Ironically, Elizabeth was not there because she was home sick with strep throat. Not a lucky beginning to the year BUT we're thinking that those are 2006 germs and she will only get better from here on out! Once the anticipation is past, many recount the year that THEY got the coin! Regardless of the coin, we know who holds us in His Hands so we are certain that each year is a year surrounded by our Blessed God.