After the liturgy, those attending share in eating the koliva as they speak of the deceased and say, "May God forgive him/her." Some Orthodox parishes have a designated individual charged with making the koliva. This is in part due to the health risk of fermented wheat if the koliva is not prepared correctly. Sometimes koliva is made with rice or barley instead of wheat. This custom began as a practical response to a famine that occurred in Soviet Russia, when the faithful did not have wheat available for koliva, so they used rice instead. Some communities continue to use rice for their koliva to this day. In the Japanese Orthodox Church where rice is mainly eaten, koliva is commonly made from rice sweetened with sugar and decorated with raisins, without reference to famine. History The origins of koliva predate Christianity. The word koliva itself stems from the Ancient Greek word (kollybos), which originally meant "a small coin" and later in the neuter plural form "small pies made of boiled wheat". In the Ancient Greek panspermia, a mixture of cooked seeds and nuts were offered during the pagan festival of the Anthesteria. In the 5th century AD koliva in the sense of boiled wheat, constituted along with raw vegetables the diet of monks who refused to eat bread. The 12th century canonist Theodore Balsamon maintained that koliva as a ritual food practice was originated by Athanasius of Alexandria during the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate. The association between death and life, between that which is planted in the ground and that which emerges, is deeply embedded in the making and eating of koliva. The ritual food passed from paganism to early Christianity in Byzantium and later spread to the entire Orthodox world. Occasions of use Koliva is used on a number of different occasions: St Theodore Saturday The tradition of blessing and eating koliva at the end of the first week of Great Lent is connected with an event in the reign of Julian the Apostate. The tradition states that the Emperor knew that the Christians would be hungry after the first week of strict fasting, and would go to the marketplaces of Constantinople on Saturday to buy food. So he ordered that blood from pagan sacrifices be sprinkled over all the food that was sold there. This made the food unsuitable as Lenten fare (since the Christians could