St. Symeon Food & Culture Fair

The St. Symeon Food and Culture Fair returns this October 9 from 9-3 with an outdoor marketplace, church tours, a choir concert, and a talk about Christian art in the Byzantine tradition. Guests can buy delicious breakfast and lunch as well as baked goods and gifts. The event is free to attend. 

This year’s event will feature favorite items from past fairs, including homemade pierogi, made-to-order Greek donuts, and kielbasa sandwiches, as well as wide variety of baked goods available in the event’s multi-ethnic outdoor marketplace.

“At St. Symeon, we love to bake and cook,” said event chairperson Niki May, “but our parish is really known for our choir.” The St. Symeon Orthodox Church Choir has recorded several albums, and its work is in regular rotation on Ancient Faith Radio. The choir will present a concert at 11 a.m. titled “The Psalms: Songbook of the Church.” 

The church was built in 2014 and features floor-to-ceiling icon murals painted in traditional Byzantine style. It will be open for tours throughout the fair. At 1 p.m., Protodeacon Ephraim Rivers will present “What is Iconography?,” a talk explaining the ancient Christian tradition of sacred art and the role of icons in Orthodox Christianity.

St. Symeon Orthodox Church is located at 3101 Clairmont Avenue in Birmingham. It is a parish of the Orthodox Church in America, a jurisdiction of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Regular weekly services include Great Vespers on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and the Divine Liturgy on Sundays at 10 a.m. A full schedule of services is available at StSymeon.com. Services are in English and visitors are welcome.