The use of the term "Byzantine" for basket blessing and pirohi is not a bad thing. It suggests that people no longer see these things as Eastern European but as something generically from the Christian East. Americans do need to know that they can join Eastern Christian parishes without also adopting the historical ethnicity of the parish. Here in Virginia I've seen baskets that contained no kielbasi, ham or hrudka, but that did have lamb, ravioli, roast beef and a nice Merlot. That is what we should want.
As to the 2 PM basket blessing they really should be re-scheduled. In America they are vestiges of days when the people did not have cars and lived too from the church to carry a basket. The priest (who often had access to a car) would designate a house in each neighborhood and spend the afternoon visiting the places and blessing baskets. I am told that in my grandmother's parish there were five or six designated places the priest would visit to bless baskets.
