******Today is Epiphany/Theophany, the end of the Christmas season in the New Calendar. Western Christians celebrate the coming of the Three Wise Men and Eastern Christians celebrate the baptism of Christ.
To commemorate the baptism water is blessed, and in the Balkans a cross is thrown into the nearest body of water and the young men dive in to retrieve it. In the US, the big celebration is in Tarpon Springs, Florida where thousands of Greeks live. This year, the Patriarch of Constantinople was there.
In Constantinople, this is done in the Bosporus (though this year without the Patriarch):
So the dove is released to symbolise the Holy Spirit and the spread of peace throughout mankind.
As usual, Turkish nationalists protested this event. They want the Patriarch out of Turkey and don't want Christian celebrations there. Of course, Greeks have been celebrating Epiphany on the Bosphorus for 1700 years, since the Turks were in Turkistan... I guess the 2,000 Greeks that are still in Constantinople are too much of a threat to Turkish identity. And the Patriarch is too much of a radical. Despite lobbying all over Europe that Turkey be admitted to the EU and defending Turkey from criticism publicly, he DARES to ask that the reopen the ONLY remaining Orthodox seminary in the country which was closed for no reason in 1971.
These guys apparently have nothing better to protest:
??/??/? 0rz
To commemorate the baptism water is blessed, and in the Balkans a cross is thrown into the nearest body of water and the young men dive in to retrieve it. In the US, the big celebration is in Tarpon Springs, Florida where thousands of Greeks live. This year, the Patriarch of Constantinople was there.
In Constantinople, this is done in the Bosporus (though this year without the Patriarch):
So the dove is released to symbolise the Holy Spirit and the spread of peace throughout mankind.
As usual, Turkish nationalists protested this event. They want the Patriarch out of Turkey and don't want Christian celebrations there. Of course, Greeks have been celebrating Epiphany on the Bosphorus for 1700 years, since the Turks were in Turkistan... I guess the 2,000 Greeks that are still in Constantinople are too much of a threat to Turkish identity. And the Patriarch is too much of a radical. Despite lobbying all over Europe that Turkey be admitted to the EU and defending Turkey from criticism publicly, he DARES to ask that the reopen the ONLY remaining Orthodox seminary in the country which was closed for no reason in 1971.
These guys apparently have nothing better to protest:
??/??/? 0rz
posted by akrites @ 1:10 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home