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2023-01-06 18:02:30
On January 6, the Greeks celebrate Epiphany, which is the feast of the Epiphany, which ends the celebration of Christmas. On this occasion, religious ceremonies are organized, which culminate in the blessing of water and the spectacular tradition of fishing out a cross thrown into the water. This time, after two years of various bans introduced during the pandemic, today's celebrations could take place with the participation of the audience. As you can guess, city dwellers took advantage of this opportunity and took part in crowds both in organized masses and in the blessing of water.
Photo source: www.cretalive.gr and www.candiadoc.gr
The tradition of blessing water, if possible, takes place over an open body of water. The priest throws a cross into the water, which is fished out by daredevils who are not afraid of swimming in cold water. As the one who fishes out the cross is said to enjoy special happiness throughout the year, there is usually no shortage of people willing to participate in this competition. In small villages away from the sea and other open bodies of water, vessels with water are simply placed in the temples. The culminating moment of the celebration of this festival is the blessing of water. The priest, after reading the prayer from the liturgical book, dips the wooden cross three times into the water.
In Heraklion, grand celebrations were organized in the Port area. Here, too, people gathered from the morning to watch the ceremony of consecration of water. After the mass, which took place in the church of Agios Titos, the faithful together with representatives of the church and local authorities went to the port. The lucky man who fished out the cross turned out to be Konstantinos Kalochristianakis. It was his second "start" in this specific "competition", but only today he managed to fish the cross out of the water.
A large and official ceremony was organized in the port of Souda, which was also attended by Nikos Hardaklias, the Greek Minister of National Defense. The minister did not fail to mention the important strategic role of Crete and expressed the hope of defeating the darkness.
It is also worth mentioning that an 8-year-old boy took part in the celebrations in Chania. Hoping to fish out the cross, he bravely jumped into the cold water with his father. Also in Rethymno, a 10-year-old boy tried his hand and was honorably given a cross.
It is also worth mentioning that this year's water blessing in Heraklion and Rethymno was also attended by women. Just a few years ago, among the daredevils jumping into the water to the cross, there were only men.
The feast of Epiphany was established to commemorate the baptism of Jesus on the Jordan River, which is why this feast is also referred to as the Baptism of the Lord. In the Greek Orthodox Church it is celebrated in a rather special way. Of course, the form of rituals and customs accompanying the main religious celebrations may be slightly different depending on the region of Greece. The festive atmosphere is already present the day before, on January 5. On this day, the faithful go to church, fast dishes appear on the tables, and houses (and not only) are visited by a priest who consecrates them. On January 6, the faithful gather in churches for Divine Liturgies, i.e. the equivalent of the Holy Mass according to the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. Later, together with the priests, in a solemn procession, they go towards the sea or other available water reservoir, where the water is blessed as described above.
2023-01-06 18:02:30
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