In some Mediterranean cultures, birthdays are considered secondary celebrations and it's the name day that's an occasion for a feast.

With most Christian names being chosen to honour a particular saint, traditionally greater importance is given to a person’s Name Day. This custom derives from the practice of baptising a child with the name of a saint – either that of the saint on whose day they were born, or the saint for whom a grandparent or family member was named.

Savva or Savvas is a popular name among Greek Cypriots. The day of Saint Savvas the Blessed falls on December 5. In the Seraphim family (Greek Cypriot migrants now living in Sydney) two of grandfather Savvas’s grandsons share his name, and hence, the name day celebrations.

For a big family meal, three generations gather. Savvas’s wife Andreani has prepared vegetables to go with lamb, which is to be baked in the backyard woodfired oven, liberally sprinkled with salt, pepper, and dried wild oregano or rigani. Fresh bay leaves are also added, along with water and a generous amount of olive oil. The lamb is left to bake for about three hours once the flames have died down to glowing embers and the oven entrance is covered and sealed over with mud.

The dish is called kleftiko, due to the fact that the meat is baked in a sealed oven and hence retains its cooking juices. (A modern adaption of this dish is to bake the lamb in baking paper or even foil, to obtain a similar effect.) The dish got its name from the word “kleftis” which means “robber” – due to the fact that mountain brigands would cook stolen meat in hidden, underground ovens.

Andreani and the ladies also make bourekia – flakey pastries filled with a mix of ricotta and haloumi and a touch of meat. They also bake taro or kolokasi – another typical Cypriot dish.

Cypriot food is a regional cuisine with several of its own distinctive specialties – including haloumi, tiny pure meat and herb sausages called sheftalia, the Cypriot loukanika sausage (smoked, seasoned with coriander and steeped in red wine) and loukoumades or honey puffs – fried yeast dough balls which are then soaked in a sweet sugar syrup.

The final touch is zivania, a white spirit distilled from grape must and the Cypriot version of rocket fuel!

Recipes:

Kleftiko
Bourekia
Loukoumades