Epiphany in Kissamos

The Epiphany celebration commemorates the anniversary of the baptism of Jesus, and wraps up the "12 Days of Christmas". It's when many people take down their Christmas trees, and here in Greece it is celebrated with the "Blessing of the Waters", during which a priest blesses a cross, throws it into the sea, and any brave (crazy) young greek guy who wants to can dive in after it. The first man to recover the cross is said to have good luck for the coming year (you'd think they'd throw in an Ipod or gift certificate to the local souvlaki joint or something...the water is COLD this time of year!). I had read about this custom long before ever coming to Crete, and was happy to learn that my town performs the ceremony so I didn't need to take the bus into Chania to watch theirs.

I walked down to the waterfront around 10:30am in order to get a good spot...someone told me it fills up fast, and the ceremony was to start at 11am. There was one ambitious lad already warming up for the competition, although I seriously doubt there was anything warm about it.




Apparently I didn't need to be down there quite so early...






but it was a pretty nice morning to be outside anyway, so I grabbed a double Elliniko and a ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast at a waterfront cafe. This was the biggest double coffee I've had here...really seemed more like a quadruple.




Good to know the coast guard would be on hand, although I'm not really sure why. I think they were just there to show off their uniforms and try to pick up chicks.






Church must have let out, because everyone showed up at once. I was able to squeeze in front of a few people and grab a seat on the wall where I had a decent view. Mostly it was little kids sitting on the wall, but I figure since I'm about the size of a little kid, I qualified.








Plotting their strategies.






People on small craft gathering to watch from a different angle, and maybe to jump in and break up any fights in the event that two guys grab the cross at the same time.






I may not be religious, but I DO like their costumes.






I think we've got all the contestants here now!







The pre-dive chanting begins (by the priest, not the swimmers).







I kept trying to get a decent frontal shot of this guy, who was super-cute (aside from the little dippy-thing he's done with his hair), but he was not cooperating.

Focus, Kyrstyn - focus. We're here to watch the Blessing of the Waters, not drool over guys are young enough to be your offspring.



OK, cool - we're reading from the big silver book now. I remember seeing the big silver book at the Christmas Eve service, too. Hmmm, could it be a ...bible? We never had bibles that pretty in Roman Catholic Mass.




And away they go!!














We have a winner, and he's letting everyone kiss his crucifix. I bet he feels like a pretty big deal right now.







He reverently gives the crucifix back to the priest...






Who then throws it in again so someone else can try for it.

Huh?













When it was all done, the priest threw the cross 3 times, and it was retrieved by three different guys (I think, it was kind of hard to tell exactly what was going on at this point). This must be one of those new, modern-minded touchy-feelly priests who thinks that everyone should feel like a winner! Although I guess technically, there were still three losers. Oh well.



And the boats head back from whence they came.






As did most of the other observers, including the marching band.