On World Greek Language Day, the Manna remembers…

The current week, culminating on February 9th, honors the impact of the Greek language on the world community, and our company remembers the choice of the term “Manna” that signifies quality in the daily food, the “heavenly bread” in the Bible. The 9th of February, commemoration day of the Νational poet Dionysios Solomos, has been established as the World Day of the Greek Language, according to the joint decision No. 17889 of the Ministers of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Education.

Our company retains the term in its brand, a term that has incorporated the message of the ecumenical text into the importance we place on the quality of our products. At the same time, the day underlines the inspiration given by the Greek language “as food for thought from real food”, as we read in anthropological studies in the USA:

“Food is a basic societal need. As Greeks claim, “appetite comes by eating” and “if the pot boils, friendship lives.” Sharing a meal is the most common Greek social activity. Perhaps fast food was invented to house the lonely and to save them faster: The faster the process, the shorter the sense of solitude. We may drink alone, but food presupposes companionship, exchange of understanding. Perhaps that is why, unconsciously, Greeks always speak to their babies when they feed them: to accustom them to the sociality of food.

Take for example the Greek word nóstimo (tasty), which shares the same root with the word nostalgia. Nóstos means the return, the journey, while ánostos means without taste. Nóstimos, thus, is the one who, from the Homeric Odysseus to the contemporary Greek, has journeyed and arrived, has matured, ripened, and is therefore tasty and, in extension, useful.”

Excerpt from the electronic edition “Dr. Maria Chnaraki, Smart Set” and the book “The Labyrinth of Cretan Cuisine” (We speak what we eat: https://www.thesmartset.com/article11130901/).

For us, the meal is a social conquest and “the Manna” is a family affair that we share with our consumers.