Kollyva

JOHN A. MCGUCKIN

Kollyva is the sweet boiled wheat used in the church services of the commemoration of the dead (Mnemosyna). The use of wheat is reminiscent of the gospel: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit” (Jn. 12.24–25). After the liturgy is concluded, the commemoration ritual blesses the wheat that is brought by the family of the deceased and often decorated with refined sugar and other devices, while the family hold lighted candles, and prayers and litanies are offered for the deceased, ending with the hymn “Memory Eternal.” Those attending the service are given, on leaving the church, packets of kollyva to eat or to take home, a remembrance of the ancient Christian custom of the funeral feast.