The Feast of the Holy Epiphany

Friday January 6th 2023

Last night, I had a knock on my door. I opened it. I was in the middle of cooking todays lunch and there was a girl, ten years old maybe, with a triangle in her hand and she said something in Greek. The trouble was, I was at a sensitive stage of making the lunch, if I had more time I would have got google translate out and tried to decider what was going on! I told her, I only speak a little Greek and apologised. ( both in Greek) I am going to try and find out what was going on! There was also a post on Facebook, in Vasileas bar, with the priest, who I see in Marinos’s coffee shop, it looked from the Greek and the photo, that the bar was being blessed!

Today is a special day in Greece. The Feast of the Holy Epiphinay. I won’t repeat the information in the link, but I went to observe a bit of the service and the blessing of the water done in Livadi today.

Meanwhile on my way I  feed the cats, I spotted this Montbrecia flowering. I think it flowers in late spring in the UK, but here it’s taking advantage of the moisture in the soil and the relatively warm temperatures. The good news is that one of the stray cats has now appeared, I hope the second one appears soon.

I made the Thai curry yesterday for todays lunch, apparently if you make a curry a day or two before you eat them, they develop flavour wise. Here it is.

As I knew these Greek Orthodox services can be quite long I decided there no rush to get down to the port this morning. So I walked down. Once I was in the sun, it was quite warm walking down the path. I could soon hear the singing and speaking of the priest. I met the lady who has praised my litter picking in the past, I wished her Good Year. When I got down to Livadi it was clear where the service was being held, in the little church that I observed the previous service. Here is the icon with narcissus on it.

There was quite a crowd, the priest who I know from Marinos’s was walking towards the church, so another Good Year to him. It was now getting on for nine thirty. I watched as a guy lifted up a little boy who wanted to kiss the icon outside the church. 

Father Daniel came out of the church with a sprig of something and he looked like he was throwing water drops over people. He ran out of water, before he got to me. He came out again, after a while with a cross in his hand and the sprig in the other one. Everyone in turn including me, was tapped on the head with the sprig, which was Basil and invited to kiss the cross.

The procession then readied itself and we all walked to the sea front like before. There was more singing and chanting, it was clear from the sole individual waiting in his swimming trunks, that the cross throwing thing was not a competition, only one person was ready to go.

The actual throwing was done several times, the cross being retrieved by Father Daniel as it had string attached to it. The boy just swam to the cross and touched it. Finally, Father Daniel  threw it further, having let go of the string and the boy swam and retrieved it. After he did so, we all clapped. He came out of the water and was blessed by the look of it. So this boy should get the luck associated by doing this, in the past several people would have dived in. During the throwing business loud horns blared.

After this I had a cold drink and then walked back home and readied myself for lunch. After lunch I might drive somewhere and sit in the sun doing my Greek. I did have a stock reply in case I was asked why I did not drop in the sea….