Happy (belated) name day!

Yesterday was Stasa's name day and we missed it! Here's some information taken from Wikipedia:

In Greece and Cyprus, a name day (Greek: εορτή, eortē, or γιορτή, yiortí, "feast") is celebrated in a similar way to a birthday.^[2]

According to the Orthodox Church, every day of the year is dedicated to the memory of at least one (usually more than one) saint or martyr. If someone is named after a saint, then there is a big celebration on his or her name day. In Greece and Cyprus many names derive from long pagan tradition, and there may not be a Christian saint by the same name. In such a case the person is said "not to have" a name day, or they may choose to celebrate on All Saints' Day. The vast majority of name days are on the same date every year; the few exceptions are names directly or indirectly associated with Easter, and are floating. This facilitates social interaction, as all Greek language calendars include detailed name day lists. Some name days coincide with major Christian feasts, for example people whose names are Chrēstos or Christine have their name day on Christmas, people named after St. Basil have their name day on New Year's Day, Anastásios andAnastasía on Easter Sunday, María and Mários on the Dormition or on the Presentation, etc.

The traditional format of a name day celebration is an open house: no specific invitations are extended and all well-wishers are welcomed. This is not uniformly observed: a family or person may choose to celebrate with invited guests only, at home, at a restaurant, a bar or a club, or not celebrate at all (e.g. following a recent bereavement). Name day celebrations are similar to birthdays, except for expected differences (e.g. there is no cake with candles on a name day). Children celebrate their birthdays and name days equally festively; as the person grows up the emphasis shifts decisively to the name day and birthdays become lower-key, family affairs.

Entertainment provided by the celebrating host may include formal or informal meals, drinks, desserts, music, dancing, etc. It is the person being celebrated that arranges the party and serves the guests, instead of the guests fussing over the celebrant. It is poor form for a guest to arrive at such a celebration "empty-handed", although the gift offered may be something as financially trivial as a card or a few flowers. Money gifts are also considered poor form, except if the celebrant is a child or teenager and the gift is offered by an adult relative or a godparent. It is poor form to celebrate birthdays and name days in too grand a fashion if the two days are close to each other. In such cases the celebrations are best merged. It is also common to shift a name day celebration to the following Friday or Saturday evening if a dinner party is planned.