St. Symeon to repeat its ‘fun’ Food & Culture Fair on Oct. 12

In April 2018, St. Symeon Orthodox Church in Birmingham hosted its inaugural Food & Culture Fair to great success, organizers said.

“We had a great turnout and a lot of fun,” said event chairperson Niki May in a church news release. “We immediately knew we wanted to do it again.”

So the church — located at 3101 Clairmont Ave. S. near Highland Park and Lakeview — will host the second annual St. Symeon Food and Culture Fair on October 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The 2019 iteration of the event will offer extended hours, as well as more food, concerts and lectures.

Guests can also tour the church and view its large, iconographic murals throughout the day. The current church building was built in 2014, and St. Symeon has completed additional murals since the 2018 festival.

The festival will be held in the fall this year, as opposed to the spring.

“Because Easter can be as late as May or as early as March, we realized we needed to move our fair to the fall,” May said.

The event will now be keyed to the feast day of the church’s patron, St. Symeon the New Theologian, May said.

The church’s fellowship hall will feature four market stalls that represent ethnic diversity of the congregation.

The Slavic Tea Room will feature piroshki, sweets and Russian tea. Southern Sweets and Savories will offer sweet tea, lemonade and pound cake. Cafe Europa will offer sweets and coffee. Balkan Bakery will offer Turkish coffee, Bulgarian pastries and Greek breads and cookies. There will also be a limited number of “Around the World” lunch plates.

Music will be provided by the church choir, which has recorded several albums. The choir will present a concert of favorite hymns at 11 a.m.

The smaller Prosomia Ensemble will present music of different languages and musical styles in a concert at 2 p.m.

There will also be two art talks. At 10 a.m., apprentice iconographer Georgia Briggs and graphic designer Andrew Ritchey will talk about symbols and other conventions typically seen in religious icons. Protodeacon Ephraim Rivers will offer a lecture at 1 p.m. about the ancient Christian tradition of sacred art and the role of icons.

For more about the event, call 930-9681 or visit stsymeon.com.