Greek Baptism

The Baptism and Wedding season continues

This time we were invited to a neighbourhood baptism.  When you're compiling your guest list there is a tradition here to invite most of the neighbourhood as well, hence our invite.  The ceremony took place at a small church nearby and the reception was at Paradise Taverna our local traditional-greek eating place.

The church is dedicated to greek saint Agios Stathi

The little boy was baptised Stathi after the saint. 

His mother says in times of trouble she goes there,  lights a candle and asks for help.  And he listens

As  often happens the church is so small that the font is dragged outside and the ceremony takes place out in the yard in front or in this case, on the side 'terrace'.

Priests and important people gather close.

The rest of us just stand out in the road chatting till it's over.

Only this time there was a glitch.  There were two priests.  Who didn't agree.  One priest started the service.  The other priest stopped him after about 10 minutes and very publicly told him off for not including some (unnecessary) piece of the liturgy and made him start again.

No, no, no

 Most of the guests, like us, lined up along the road in the, now midday, sun were very annoyed.  In fact I started to feel a bit dizzy and me and my english friend went into the church in search of shade and a chair.  We found an empty church and 4 chairs!  Thank goodness.  The service dragged on and on. 

Besides my traditional Greek there was a traditional Scotsman as well.  

My traditional Greek and Bf

As soon as the priest/s announced the name of the baby we took off down to the taverna for a cold drink and a seat under the vines

All the foreigners were seated together, the Scotsman and his wife, my friend and I and an american we have known for many years.  They had placed 2 greek couples at the table as well, K's best friend (a huge relief he had a pal to gossip with) and another greek couple from the neighbourhood who spoke english.  A good combination.

I can truly say that a good time was had by all. Having a friend and ally next to me who speaks the same language makes a tremendous difference. I've could have almost done a Scottish reel myself.  Almost. 

At each setting there was a 'dipla' (sweet pastry), and a bag of sugared almonds

We were served salads, cheeses, savouries, tzatziki and a pasta dish, supposed to fill you up before the platters of meat and potatoes.

Platters of pork and potatoes were the second course and those that 

stayed till the end were rewarded with platters of plain old boiled mutton. Traditional Greeks love a bit of mutton after a day of drinking.  

'Pudding' was cold blanc-mangey  with strawberry sauce! I ate the blancmange but pretended to myself it was part of my diet because I scraped off (most) of the strawberry sauce. 

After a few glasses of wine I couldn't resist.

There was plenty to eat and drink.  Numerous people were openly filling plastic bags with big chunks of meat from the table, leftovers or not, and bones to be taken back to dogs.  

 

It started to cloud over after a while and the sun lost it's heat.  Later in the afternoon there were a few sprinkles of rain, but never enough to douse the 'kefi' (high spirits)

Random photos

Under the grapevines

A lovely scene

The ground is just dirt though.

Long dresses and trews get dirty hems and cuffs and my sandals filled with grit.

Mustn't complain though.

It's all part of the party.

I knew it would happen with open sandals.

Children's playground helps the children to burn off excess energy. They usually burn it off by racing in and out of the tables.  

Cake stand

A general theme of blue and white to keep that evil eye away 

We were only a few hundred metres from home so like most foolhardy Greeks we mounted our (motor) bikes and drove, safely, home.