14th September
The Feast of the Holy Cross - Timios Stavros in greek
Name day for men named Stavros
and women named Stavroula
It is also a day of fasting. The tradition on this day is to eat fried salt cod with garlic sauce.
This little church is on a hillock in the middle of nowhere. This morning we passed by, hoping to stop and light a candle on our return. There were dozens and dozens of cars parked outside for the early morning service. When we did return in the middle of the day there was just the fire truck parked beside the church and two firemen seated at a small table under the trees
Inside the church the icon of the Cross had been decorated with basil. It is a tradition today to take a bunch of basil to church, have it blessed and take it to home to bless the house with its aroma.
Basil was growing over the patch of ground where St Helen, according to legend, found the Holy Cross, in Jerusalen in 328AD.
If, like us, you didn't bring your own bunch there was a pile of blessed basil underneath the icon
We hung our bunch in the front of the car and had a safe journey home
The church of the Holy Cross at the end of Poros harbour. Once upon a time the old slaughter house was right behind it and the sea full of sharks feeding off the blood and guts.
Nowadays it is a favourite site for fishing and the sea is clean enough to swim in, off the rocks.
0 Yorumlar