Saturday 7 January 2023

Blessings of Waters

 

6th January.  The last day of Christmas and New Year celebrations. A big church fiesta here and national holiday. Another 3 day weekend. Yeh for the workers, except for those in the food and drink industry. Kids go back to school on Monday.
 Called Theophania here, the revelation of god. Elsewhere Epiphany, Twelth Night, Three Kings, Adoration of the Magi.  It commemorates too the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River. 
Our father told us if we hadn't  taken down our Christmas decorations by the 6th the bad witch  would come and make havoc of them. 
Granddaughter came up, went through the house like a whirlwind, took every last bit of red ribbon, gathered the gnomes from under the tree, pulled the tree apart, packaged it and stored it. 
It's over

I know this day as the blessing of the waters. All over Greece local priests bless rivers, reservoirs, lakes or seas.  
On a beautiful warm day like it was this year the whole population of the island, it seems, comes out to watch the ceremony and then stays on the waterfront, meeting with large groups of friends and relatives to have a drink of coffee, ouzo, wine with plates of mezethes, snacks like roast pork, fried salt cod and garlic sauce, meatballs and fried cheese. So many delicacies, so much conversation, too much noise. 

We stayed at home this year which was fine by me. 


All the local priests board this traditional fishing kaiki and sail out into the middle of the straits, along with the bigwigs and those who think they should be wearing bigwigs. Looks a bit top heavy! 


All lined up, droning into a microphone, preparing to dip the cross in the sea, ten swimmers lined up on the dock ready to dive. No girls this year


With an escort from the rowing club


And granddaughter Poppi
Of course

Photos thanks to my daughter 
Elli Tz

Bigwigs.. 
Mogul, VIP, nabob, pooh-bah, honcho, bigcheese
Love those words


11 comments:

  1. Ha, ha. Love those words too. Plus others meaning the same thing that I cannot print here!

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  2. I've heard of different Christmas traditions, B told me last week that apparently if you leave up your tree past the 12th day after xmas it's bad luck, which I don't believe in of course.

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    1. Supposed to bring bad luck.......so they say .
      Would definitely annoy me. By new years I'm ready to get my house back

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  3. Yup by epiphany I’m over the decorations. So they definitely come down.
    We went, pre covid, the the blessing of the waters in frankston. It’s a short car ride.
    It was lovely to see it. But I’ve seen it now and I don’t feel the need to go again.
    Much rather just stay home

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    1. We stayed at home this year. I didn't miss the noise and crowds at all. K got live coverage from half a dozen places on TV... And facebook

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  4. Do they dive for a cross…..or is that a different festival?
    Loads of ‘young men’ do that from jetties round the bay here

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    1. Yes, they dive for the cross. The first to reach it and hold it up usually gets a small present

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  5. All good fun. What would you do without all these saint's days and festivals!!!

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  6. Saints days do help keep the holidays ticking over. Of course it was a name day yesterday too. Fotis (male) and Fotini (female) .... and more coming up fast.

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  7. Add nobs & snobs to that list. (The Royal Norfolk & Suffolk yacht club is a posh place on England's east coast which a friend who lived locally had nicknamed nobs & snobs). Looks like a great day was enjoyed by all who attended.

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