Γεννόπιττα ή γεννοπούλλα. Λετύμπου, 2016. Πηγή: Στάλω Λαζάρου.
Christmas bread. Genopitta was round shaped, slightly larger than bread and decorated with small leaves, small crosses, etc.
Name - Origin
Χριστόψωμο.
Special Christmas bread (Kyprianou and Christodoulou 1969, 9).
In some of the villages of Paphos they were also known as "gennopoulles".
For the preparation of gennopitta, they would use good quality wheat, which they would grind twice to make it white in colour. The flour was kneaded with spices such as cinnamon, mastic and cloves. Genopites (pl.) were round in shape and slightly larger in size than bread. The main element of their decoration was the cross, either one in the centre or four smaller ones at the ends of the pitta. In the villages of Karpasia, gennopittes were decorated with raisins on top, while in the villages Lefkoniko and Peristeronopigi of Famagusta, a white egg was placed on the gennopitta (Kypri and Protopapa 2003, 89).
For the Christmas genopitta they would make a pitta where they would form a cross on top. They would decorate it all around with small leaves, small crosses, etc. In some villages they would also use a star for decoration, which symbolised the new life that was born (MANRE 2008, 72).
Functional and symbolic role
Gennopittes were prepared at Christmas. Housewives would usually bake several gennopittes to last for all the days of the Christmas holidays, but one in particular would decorate the household table. In the village of Agridaki in Kyrenia district, on Christmas Eve they would put a gennopitta, some wine, some oil and a plate of food on the table to be blessed by Jesus (Kypri and Protopapa 2003, 89).
Gennopittes were prepared for the Christmas celebrations. It was customary to cut the gennopitta after the Christmas church service and eat it together with the traditional Christmas soup (Kypri and Protopapa 2003, 89).
Hoouseholds would prepare three gennipittes for Christmas: for Christmas, for New Year's Day and for Epiphany. There was always a gennopitta on the Christmas table, after church, when the family would eat the traditional soup (Per. Agrotis 2008, 72).
The egg that was placed on top of the gennopitta in some villages, symbolised new life (Kypri and Protopapa 2003, 89).
In some villages, a star was also used for decoration which symbolised the new life that was born (Per. Agrotis 2008, 72).
Additional information and bibliography
Christmas bread and pastries were called sesamota, since they were decorated with sesame (Kypri and Protopapa 2003).
During the Christmas season, they would make the breads and bake them on Christmas Eve, so as to last until the Epiphany day. The breads are taken care of particularly well, with doublesifted flour and sprinkled with blanched sesame seeds. It is customary for housewives, to give a piece of hot bread to passers-by a soon as the brea dis out of the oven. Among these, we may distinguish the christopsoma, the koumoulla or dahtylies, the koulouria, the gennopitta or poulla and the vassilopitta (or Vassilis) which was dedicated to the Saint (Agios Vasislis) and was cut on New Year's Day, on the feast of the Saint (Yangoullis 2008, 50-51).
Yangoullis K. G. (2009), Thesaurus of the Cypriot dialect. Interpretative, Etymological, Phraseological and Nomenclatural Dictionary of the Medieval and Modern Cypriot Dialect, Theopress Publications, Nicosia.
Kypri Th. - Protopapa K. A. (2003), Cypriot traditional kneading of bread and pastries. Their use and significance in customary life, Publications of the Centre for Scientific Research, XVIII, Nicosia.
Kyprianou, H.S. and Christodoulou, M. (1969). Λαογραφικόν Λεξικόν, Nicosia.
Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment (2008) "For the farmer: Traditional Christmas Baking", Agrotis, October-November-December 2008.
Varvara Yangou, Dimitra Demetriou, Ivi Michael / Petroula Hadjittofi
Διακόσμηση της γεννόπιττας. Με λωρίδα ζυμαριού σχηματίζεται σταυρός ή τετράφυλλη μαργαρίτα. Λετύμπου 2016. Πηγή: Στάλω Λαζάρου.
Διακόσμηση της γεννόπιττας. Με λωρίδα ζυμαριού σχηματίζεται σταυρός ή τετράφυλλη μαργαρίτα. Λετύμπου 2016. Πηγή: Στάλω Λαζάρου.
Διακόσμηση της γεννόπιττας. Με λωρίδα ζυμαριού σχηματίζεται σταυρός ή τετράφυλλη μαργαρίτα. Λετύμπου 2016. Πηγή: Στάλω Λαζάρου.
Διακόσμηση της γεννόπιττας. Με λωρίδα ζυμαριού σχηματίζεται σταυρός ή τετράφυλλη μαργαρίτα. Λετύμπου 2016. Πηγή: Στάλω Λαζάρου.
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Μικρές εγχαράξεις, σχηματισμένες με πηρούνι, κοσμούν την περιφέρεια της γεννόπιττας. Λετύμπου 2016. Πηγή: Στάλω Λαζάρου.
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Η τελική όψη της διακόσμησης. Λετύμπου 2016. Πηγή: Στάλω Λαζάρου.
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