Greek Traditions and Customs in America: A Guidebook - Second Edition | Explore Heritage & Cultural Practices for Greek-American Families

I have a copy of this book and have read and reread it for holidays, traditions and church customs.It has really helped me understand my husband's family and everything they do but cannot tell me 'WHY?' they do it.My willingness to understand and participate in Greek customs has won me a lot of goodwill from my husbands family( there are a lot of them - I have counted up to 4th cousins in our local area alone) It also has given me the ability to teach Greek traditions to my 2 sons so that they can share in their father's culture.I have given 3 copies in the past year to bride and grooms who were the 'stranger/outsider' (Xeni/Xenos in tag line) in an American/Greek couple. I did not give it to them to indoctrinate or convert them but so that they could better understand their spouse's Greek side. Even simple things like why do they eat Kourabiedes at weddings? What do the koufetta mean. What is the matia(eye)? How do you get rid of the bad matia when someone gives it to you? They might seem like trivial things but these are just some of the things that are all woven into the Greek persona.