16—Cleveland Daily Banner—Wednesday, January 6, 2016
www.clevelandbanner.com
Orthodox Christians celebrate Epiphany
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) —
Wednesday is Epiphany, a major
holiday in much of Orthodox
Christianity celebrating the birth
and baptism of Jesus. Religious
services are held as well as
Blessing of Water ceremonies at
lakes, rivers and seafronts.
But in Russia, Serbia, Ukraine
and other Orthodox countries
which observe a different religious calendar, it is Christmas
Eve. Roman Catholics and
Protestants, meanwhile, celebrate the story of the Wise Men
who followed a star to Jesus’ cradle.
Here’s a look at celebrations
taking place on Wednesday:
—GREECE
Ceremonies were held across
the country, with divers jumping
from piers, bridges and tug boats
and including school children
and members of the country’s
navy special forces.
The main ceremony was held
at the country’s largest port of
Piraeus, near Athens, but leftwing Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras attended a smaller ceremony in the Greek capital following a spat with traditionalists in
the Orthodox Church who vehemently opposed a recent law
sanctioning same sex-civil partnerships.
Bishop Serapheim of Piraeus
described the law an “insult to
human identity” and “psychiatric
deviation from healthy sexuality.”
—CYPRUS
More than 1,000 Orthodox
Christian faithful attended the
annual Epiphany Day blessing of
the waters in Famagusta in
Cyprus’ breakaway Turkish
Cypriot north. It was the first
time the ceremony has taken
place since 1974 when Turkey
invaded after a coup aiming at
union with Greece divided the
island.
In keeping with tradition,
Archimandrite
Avgoustinos
Karras hurled a silver cross into
the cold waters of the eastern
Mediterranean as about 20 daring swimmers dashed into the
sea to retrieve it. The ritual is
called the Blessing of the Water
and symbolizes Jesus’ baptism
in River Jordan.
Organizer Pavlos Lacovou told
The Associated Press that several Turkish Cypriots also attended Wednesday’s ceremony.
Acting as th e backdrop to the
ceremony was the Turkish military-controlled
suburb
of
Varosha that has remained a virtual ghost town for 42 years,
ensconced in a chain-link fence
that keeps everyone out.
The ceremony was the latest in
a number of recent, faith-oriented acts of rapprochement
between the island’s majority
Orthodox Christian, Greekspeaking and the Muslim,
Turkish speaking populations.
They aim to underscore that religion doesn’t drive a wedge
between Greek and Turkish
Cypriots.
—VATICAN
Pope Francis says restless
hearts these days are seeking
sure answers to life’s questions
but don’t find them.
Francis has voiced this reflection during Mass in St. Peter’s
Basilica Wednesday to mark
Epiphany, which recalls the
Gospel account of the Three
Kings, or Magi, who followed a
star to find baby Jesus in
Bethlehem.
The pontiff said: “Like the
Magi, countless people in our
day have a ‘restless heart’ which
continues to search without
finding sure answers.”
—TURKEY
Members of Istanbul’s tiny
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AP Photo
An AlbAniAn mAn hands over to the priest the cross he
retrieved from the Osum River in the southern city of Berat, Albania
thrown there from an Eastern Orthodox priest to celebrate Epiphany
day as people believe that the one who retrieves it will be healthy
through the year, Wednesday. Albania known for its religious coexistence where the Orthodox and Catholic communities live in peace
with the majority Muslims.
Greek Orthodox community, visitors from neighboring Greece
and other faithful attended an
Epiphany service led by
Ecumenical
Patriarch
Bartholomew I, the spiritual
leader of the world’s Orthodox
Christians in Istanbul, where the
Patriarchate is based.
A group of faithful leaped into
the frigid waters of the Golden
Horn inlet to retrieve a wooden
cross thrown by Bartholomew.
Nicolaos Silos, a 28-year-old visitor from Greece, was the first to
reach it.
A ceremony to bless the waters
was also held in Izmir, Turkey’s
third-largest city. It was the first
“official” Epiphany ceremony
there since the end of a GreekTurkey war nearly a century ago
that triggered a population
exchange between Greece and
Turkey. Although the Greek
Consulate in Izmir had organized
a ceremony 2006, it was the first
time the Turkish government
both approved and helped to
organize it.
“It’s a historic day here and
we’re grateful to the local
authorities
and
to
the
Patriarchate ... for making this
happen,” Tina Samoglu, secretary of the Izmir Orthodox
Community told Greek state TV.
“I feel very proud and I’m filled
with emotion.”
The patriarchate in Istanbul
dates from the 1,100-year-old
Orthodox Greek Byzantine
Empire, which collapsed when
the Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, today’s
Istanbul, in 1453.
—BULGARIA
Thousands of young men
waded into icy waters in
Bulgaria to retrieve crucifixes
cast on the waters by priests. By
tradition, the person who
retrieves it will be healthy and
freed from evil spirits all year.
After the cross is fished out, the
priest takes a bunch of dried
basil to sprinkle water over
believers.
In some villages, men dipped
into a local river and danced the
horo, a traditional dance. In the
mountain village of Kalofer, in
central Bulgaria, scores of men
in traditional dress waded into
the icy Tundzha River carrying
national flags.
Led by a drummer and several
men playing the bagpipes, they
danced in the freezing waters,
pushing away floating chunks of
ice. Some sipped plum brandy
and red wine as an antidote to
the freezing weather.
—SPAIN
Children across Spain woke
up Wednesday to open presents
left during a night-time “visit” by
the Three Kings of Orient, a tra-
dition similar to that of Santa
Claus but celebrated annually
on Epiphany.
Expectations were raised the
previous evening as towns and
cities across the country held
Epiphany parades or cavalcades
symbolizing the coming of the
Magi to Bethlehem laden with
gifts for the baby Jesus.
Thousands of children and
parents thronged sidewalks in
Madrid and other cities to watch
as ornately decorated floats —
including in some cases men
dressed as kings riding camels
or horses — were accompanied
by clowns, jugglers and marching bands.
The tradition spread from
Spain to many Latin American
countries where Epiphany is the
day when gifts are exchanged.
—
BETHLEHEM
The Orthodox Patriarch of the
Holy Land, Theophilos III,
arrived in Bethlehem on
Wednesday
for
Orthodox
Christmas celebrations. He
walked along the streets of the
city in the traditional procession
toward the Church of Nativity.
—
UKRAINE
Rebels in the east said they
were willing to release captives
taken during the conflict to
mark Christmas. It was unclear
however, if Ukrainian authorities would be willing to do a prisoner exchange.
The rebels in Donetsk said
they wouldn’t engage in a
release without a similar release
by Kiev. But Igor Plotnitsky,
leader of rebels in Luhansk, said
his forces were prepared for a
release without any reciprocal
move by Kiev.
It was not known how many
prisoners each sides are holding
or how many might be eligible
for the potential release.
—ROMANIA
Hundreds of Romanian villagers gathered on the fields
near the southern village of
Pietrosani, where a priest
blessed horses in a traditional
Epiphany ritual to ward off diseases and bad luck during the
year.
Orthodox priests sprinkled
holy water on more than a dozen
horses, which were decorated
with red tassels, ear caps and
ankle bands for good luck. The
animals are essential to village
life, and are used for plowing,
carrying wood and transport.
Horses, ridden bareback, later
thundered across the icy fields
in the annual race. Villagers
drank plum brandy and mulled
wine and ate grilled spicy
sausages to celebrate the feast
while horses dragged logs to
demonstrate their strength.
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