Christopsomo

The story

Christopsomo, “Christ's bread,” is a decorated sweet yeast bread with a large cross of dough pressed into the top, baked for Christmas and accompanied by a special family ritual: before it is sliced, the head of the family says a prayer and cuts the sign of the cross over the loaf with a knife, and then the pieces are handed to each member of the family in turn, from the oldest to the youngest. The decoration around the central cross often reflects the family's occupation or source of income — farmers shape a sheaf of wheat or a plow out of dough, fishermen a boat or a net, shepherds a flock of sheep — so that every loaf says something about the family that made it. This custom of shaping occupation-specific symbols is one of the less often noted, yet well documented, details of Greek village Christmas cooking. The smell of the bread, spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and sometimes orange, fills the house as it bakes on Christmas Eve. For Greek families in America, shaping a symbol of their own on the bread — perhaps a restaurant, perhaps a doctor's bag — is one of the most personal ways to adapt the tradition to a new life without losing its essence.