Kollivas are boiled wheat, any wheat is a symbol of the human body, because the human body is fed and raised with wheat.
Therefore the Lord likened His godly Body to the wheat spout, thus saying in his twelfth chapter against John the Gospel: “the wheat spout, if by falling to the ground and does not die, it remains its monk (and not many more) but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
We take the kolyvas to the Church at the memorial services, but also on Psychic Saturdays. So it is easily understood that when we eat the turnips there is a symbolism.
So wheat symbolizes death, burial, and resurrection of bodies. But only wheat and not the other fruits (barley, oatmeal etc). Our dead, will be disintegrated “from the seams” and will be raised again by the power of God, during the common Resurrection, with a no longer indestructible body like wheat.
In fact, at the end of the Memorandum it is said three times: “May memory be eternal, may his/her memory be eternal.”
Traditional Kollyva – “The Wheat of the Psychosaturday”
“As a flower it withers and as an honor it withers away and disintegrates into a human.”
The Kollivas, or as the name “the stari” prevailed in many places, is one of the oldest Christian customs preserved in the life of the Orthodox Church and is directly linked to the memorials of the dead which are included in certain places days, like three-day, nine-day, four-day, quarterly, yearly, and and psycho saturdays. Kolliva is wheat boiled and mixed with nuts such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, raisins, pomegranates, herbs and sugar, and as usual today, it takes the form of a decorated tray.
They are offered to those who are present in church at a memorial service, but then shared at relative or friendly houses. The custom dates back to the older Christian years and is related to the feasts of the Greeks and other peoples. The word kollyva has ancient Greek origin. By the words kolyvo and kolyva at the beginning they meant every kind of small pie-shaped wheat dessert or the “trogaliza” and “crackles”, i.e. nuts (walnuts, almonds, raisins, hazelnuts, figs, etc. a. ) as well as the “roasted sheeton” against the Byzantine Swedish dictionary.
It also means every coin of little value, i.e. the very thin in thickness and value coin. Aristophanus (424 BC) X) He calls the coins “Kollyvous”. According to the opinion of some in the early Christian years there was a custom to distribute to memorials, kolytes, small i.e. coins, as alms: “alms for those who have gone to the Lord in their memorials.” This is how we ended up calling the “wheat”, kollyva.
As I mentioned before, the custom of hooks is very old. Its roots go back to pre-Christ years. Wheat, the primary food of mankind, was a sacred fruit to our ancient ancestors. It was the excellent kind of food that made humans different from wild animals. For this reason the wheat also had a sacred character.
Ancient Greeks had the habit of offering their dead once a year on Chitras Day, that is, on the Tuesday and last day of the Feast of the Antestirios, a mixture of various fruits called “panspermia or pancarpia”. This holiday of the ancient Greeks held in honor of the dead has something to do with our own Psychosaturday.
Today crutches are associated with Christian burial. However offering fruit to the dead and then to relatives, as a treat in memory of the deceased is very old. It is an action intertwined with the pain of loss, regardless of time, culture, race, history and religion. So it is easily understood that when we share and eat the kollivas we are not doing something random, there is a symbolism in this movement.
In the beginning, Christ Himself likened His body to the wheat sprout: (In John ib, 24: “If a grain of wheat falleth and die, it alone remains; if he does not die, it bringeth much fruit” and A Corinthians. John 42: “Even so Anastasia of the dead. sown in decay, sown in destruction”) “The wheat pimple, if falling to the ground, does not die, remains alone (and does not multiply) but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
But what do the materials contained in the kolliva symbolize?
Wheat is the basic element to make kolliva but other materials vary from place to place. They say that the materials should be 9 whatever the ranks of the Angels and each has its own symbolism.
The star: It is the symbol of the earth and also symbolizes the soul of the dead.
The pomegranate: By this Hades kept Persephone in the underworld, of course the Christians on the pomegranate symbolize the glory of heaven.
Whitened almonds or walnuts: symbolizing the bare bones to remind us of the fate we will all have. (Yes, I know a little macabre. )
Spices: They are the aromas of this world.
Parsley (in some variations mint): It is the wish for rest “in the place of chlorine”.
Nuts: It’s the life that reproduces.
The rubbing from the straws or toasting or flour: It symbolizes the light soil.
The raisin: From ancient times it symbolizes Dionysus and the sweetness of life to Christ who is the vine. And lastly…
Sugar symbolizing sweet paradise while its whiteness symbolizes the color of triumph and “endless light”.