[[Image:Orthodoxer Gottesdienst.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Postcard, undated (ca.1916), showing an Orthodox service with the blessing of Kollyva.]]

The Kollyva mixture is then placed on a platter and shaped into a mound or cake, to resemble a grave. The whole is then decorated with a powdered sugar covering, often with Jordan almonds, raisins , or other sweets decoratively placed on the surface. A [[cross]] is traced or created with the sweets on the top, and on its sides are placed the initials of the departed for whom the memorial is held. A candle, usually often placed in the center of the Kollyva, is lit at the beginning of the [[Memorial Services|requiem service]] and extinguished at its end; the candle symbolizes the light wherewith the Christian is illumined in [[Baptism]], and also the light of the world to come, which knows no setting.

The Ancient Greek [[w:First Fruits|first fruits]] offerings (or dedications) known as ''panspermia,''<ref group="note">For this reason, in Greece, Kollyva is also called ''sperma'' (i.e., "seed"). The ancients also used the word ''pankarpia''.See also [[w:Thalysia|Thalysia]], a harvest festival in ancient Greece, celebrated in honor of the goddess Demeter.</ref> consisted of a mixture of cooked seeds and nuts ([[w:Pulse (legume)|Pulse]]) which were offered during the festival of the [[w:Anthesteria|Anthesteria]].

The [[w:Anthesteria|Anthesteria]]<ref group="note">The name Anthesteria (Ἀνθεστήρια) is usually connected etymologically with the Greek ''anthos'' (ἄνθος; plural: ἄνθη or ἄνθεα; root: ἀνθεσ-), "flower" or "bloom", cognate to the Sanskrit ''andhas'' ("[[w:Soma|Soma]] plant/juice").</ref> was one of the four Athenian festivals in honour of Dionysus (collectively the ''[[w:Dionysia|Dionysia]]''), held annually for three days, from the eleventh to the thirteenth of the month of [[w:Anthesterion#List_of_months|Anthesterion]] (February-March). The festival predates the Ionian colonisation of the early eleventh century B.C.,<ref group="note">"The traditional date of the [[w:Ionians|Ionian]] migration is the early eleventh century B.C. (1086/85 or 1076/75; Jacoby, ''Mar. Par.'' 27, pp. 151-52 and ''FGrH'' No. 239, Comm. on 27) or in its third quarter (1044/43 according to [[w:Eratosthenes|Eratosthenes]], who placed it four generations after [[w:Trojan War|the fall of Troy]]; 1045/44 for Ephesus and 1039/38 for the other cities according to [[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]] 1. 187. 36). These chronological indications have been accepted by most historians who regard the migration as a consequence of the [[w:Dorians|Dorian]] invasion of mainland Greece." (Carl Roebuck. ''The Early Ionian League.'' '''Classical Philology'''. Vol.50, No.1 (Jan.,1955), pp.26-40. p.37.)</ref> making it the oldest datable part of the [[w:Eleusinian Mysteries|Eleusinian Mysteries]]. Although its name indicates a Festival of Flowers (''anthos''), the festival focused primarily on opening the new wine and on placating the spirits of the dead.According to Swedish classical scholar [[w:Martin P. Nilsson|Martin P. Nilsson]], writing in 1940: <blockquote>"The custom has been taken over by the Greek Church. The panspermia is offered to the dead on the modern Greek All Souls' Day, the Psychosabbaton, which is celebrated in the churchyards before Lent or before Whitsunday. It is offered as first fruits on various occasions, but especially at the harvest and at the gathering of the fruit. It is brought to the church, blessed by the priest, and eaten in part, at least, by the celebrants. This modern panspermia varies according to the seasons and consists of grapes, loaves, corn, wine, and oil. Candles are fixed in the loaves, and there are candlesticks with cups for corn, wine, and oil, which have been compared to the ancient kernos. The usual modern name of these offerings is ''' ''kollyba'' ''', which signified in late antiquity as well as in modern times an offering of cooked wheat and fruit. The word appears also in descriptions of ecclesiastical usages from the Middle Ages. Very seldom can the continuity of a cult usage be followed through the ages as this one can. These popular customs, which belong to the oldest and, as some say, the lowest stratum of religion, are the most long-lived of all."<ref>[[w:Martin P. Nilsson|Nilsson, Martin Persson]]. ''[https://books.google.ca/books?id=UwnGYe8WiCUC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=Psychosabbaton&source=bl&ots=pHeuJnzNe9&sig=ACfU3U1SstfAdEBM4WUBZjbugrxjTiVmMQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjroI6lvY_iAhVKbKwKHWtQCgYQ6AEwBXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Psychosabbaton&f=false Greek Folk Religion].'' Columbia University Press, 1940. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961. pp.&nbsp;31-32.</ref></blockquote>

===St . Theodore Saturday===

However St. [[Theodore the Soldier|Theodore of TyreTyro]] appeared in a dream to the Patriarch of Constantinople [[Eudoxius of Antioch|Eudoxios]], ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the market, but rather to boil the wheat (already called ''Kollyva'') that they had at home and eat it sweetened with honey.

* [[Memorial Services]] (''Mnemósynon; PanikhidaPannikhida'')