A story from the author…
I remember one time when I was young (nine or ten
years old) I woke up very early while my parents were still fast asleep. I
didn’t know what to do as the sun hadn’t risen and the house was full of
darkness. Then I remembered it was Sunday and that the kantilia should be lit.
I went into the kitchen, as quietly as possible. I
took out a half full four-litre can of olive oil from the kitchen cupboard and
searched for the wax wicks. I took the chiselled glass we used as the lamp and
checked if it still had some water. I filled it almost to the rim with oil,
removed the brunt out wick from the cork floater, inserted a new one then very
carefully placed it back in our icon corner next to the kitchen sink facing the
window.
With an icon of Sts Constantine and Helen watching me
I struck the match. The smoke went up in small curly clouds followed by the
overpowering smell of sulphite. Using the match I pushed the floater more into
the middle of the thick yellow oil. I watched a second tiny flame jump from the
match to the wick. It grew into a small, steady flame lightening up the whole
darkened kitchen. For a moment I stood there in the silence, not sure what to
do next. As my eyes wandered I caught a glance of the palm cross we had with
glu-tac onto our icon corner from last Palm Sunday. Then the ‘Our Father’
prayer came to me. As I quietly whispered those words to God I looked through
the kitchen widow and saw something remarkable in the distance. At first it was
a twinkle and then the sun came blazing up from the east over the mountains. My
eyes burned from the radiance but then I noticed the magnificent illuminating
colours in the clouds; the sky was alive. Stunned for only a moment I then
continued with my prayer. All the while I could feel the warm, golden embrace
of the morning sun on my face.
After I finished I sat on a short stool. A few seconds
later Mum came into the kitchen. The first thing that caught her eye was the
gentle flame now in sunbathed room. She then turned to me, ‘Did you light the
kantilia, Christaka?’ I will always remember that time and the smile on her
face.
The Orthodox Faith is life. Life is the Orthodox Faith.
Mission
of this site
Orthodox
traditions, customs and practices are part of daily life. They are highly symbolic, require physical effort and
directly engage the individual with God. In others words, Orthodoxy is a living, tangible Faith. This site’s aim
is to educate and preserve the richness
and diversity of Orthodoxy and
incorporate into our lives.
So, who is this
site for? In short, everyone: children, teenagers, adults, elderly and
converts. The ultimate goal is to:
- comprehensively list and detail as many traditions, customs and practices as possible;
- describe how to perform these rich expressions; and
- encourage individuals and families to incorporate them into their daily lives.
Much of the
information collected is not only from resources such as books and the
Internet, but from individual members of the Church including laity, priests
and monks from their personal experiences and knowledge – for there is no
Church without its people.
Not only will you
learn about various feasts and important stages of life, but the prayers,
hymns, recipes and regional variations. There will be some traditions that are
very well known, some lesser known and some practiced by only a few. However,
this site’s purpose is not to critic, rank or comment on current “trends” or
popularity of traditions, but to state what they are for the benefit of all
Orthodox Christians.
Special note must
be made. This site’s sole purpose is the publication of what are known as small
“t” traditions and not the big “T” Holy Traditions of the Faith. To include all
the big “T” traditions and doctrines of the Orthodox Church would require a
site with a much larger capacity and the administrator of this site does not
have the in-depth knowledge to explain them properly. However, there will be
some brief explanations on the meaning and significance of various Feasts and
Sacraments. If one requires more in-depth, theological-based explanations it
would be best to seek suitable books and sites from your local Archdiocese or
parish.
The Orthodox Person – living in the five senses.
The Orthodox Faith may appear complex and perhaps even “foreign”, but
it depends on the person’s mindset. Orthodoxy is not built on being an
intellectual exercise or being a “club member”; it is rather known as The Way – to live and love God
based on the heart.
An important aspect of Orthodoxy is the full incorporation of the five
senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. When one attends Church they see
icons, hear chanting, smell incense, touch candles, and, most importantly,
taste Holy Communion. This also applies to the Faith outside Church, at home,
where a person can express their devotion through traditions.
Practising one’s Faith shows dedication and love towards God. Orthodoxy
is a Faith that is organic, tangible yet mystical but can be experienced daily.
An Orthodox Christian is like a length of rope made up of two strands: the
individual and the Faith. By twinning the two together one very strong piece of
rope is formed.
Death to
materialism!
Every year
corporations, big and small, come up with new ways to “celebrate” Christian
days, such as Pascha and Christmas. Commercialism does not care whether this
year’s new Easter range has anything to do with Christ, the Cross or the
Resurrection, but whether the marketing department has created a new product
which consumers will find desirable.
Of course
throughout the centuries Orthodox have created new traditions or “reshaped” old
ones but retain their Christ-centeredness, unlike many Northern-European ones
which have been “reincarnated” for department stores. Commercialism is about
establishing a trend for one year, then generating another one next year.
Traditions should be carried through the centuries from one generation to
another, not become last year’s “has-been” accessory.
In opposition to
commercialism Orthodox traditions and customs are organic in nature. Instead of
things which need to be manufactured, Orthodox traditions (such as baking
breads, cakes and flower arrangements) are things which can be easily made by
families and passed on to the next generation.
Something to
ponder – how can we move towards the future unless we live the past in the present?
Piety: a
double-edged sword
Piety is a
faithful person’s sincere expression of their Faith towards God through various
actions. However, this can be fraught with danger.
One must be very,
very careful not to think they are so pious because they “do” all the
traditions – then that person is no better than the Pharisees. The Pharisees
were very good at following all the rules and regulations under the Old Covenant,
but in essence they were hypocrites because they did all these things not for
the love of God, but for the love and admiration of men.
This does not mean
a person should not follow the traditions and customs, but they are merely vain
human expressions. What is important and what REALLY matters to God is if we do
the following throughout our lives:
- confession
- Communion
- prayer
- fasting
Most importantly,
they must be done with:
- love
- repentance
- forgiveness
- reconciliation
- patience
If these things
are not done a person cannot call themselves Orthodox and, most importantly,
will not saved.
That is why the
Church commemorates the Parable of the Publican and Pharisee on first week of
Triodian just before Lent. Also consider the words from Psalm 51, a psalm of repentance:
For
You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt
offering.
The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.
It’s all Greek to me?
When reading this site it may appear to be ‘Greek’ this and ‘Greek’
that?
The primary reason why the majority of this site is about the Greek
Church is simple – the heritage and cultural background of the author is Greek.
Logically, a writer would have a more in-depth understanding of his own
cultural practices compared to cultures he has never lived.
However, and this can not stress this enough, one of the beautiful
things about Orthodox Christianity is its love
and respect for all peoples. Orthodoxy does this by incorporating
cultural and regional difference into the practice of the Faith. It is for this
reason attempts have been made to include the customs and traditions of all
children of the Orthodox Family including Russian, Serbians, Lebanese,
Romanians and others. There is room for traditions and practices of people who
have converted and are not originally from what one would call
“traditional-Orthodox” backgrounds – for example, Italian, Chinese, Japanese
and others.
No-one is excluded
from the Church, it is Universal. It is not the cultural/ethical differences
that are to separate us. It is whether we are canonical and follow the one true
Faith, unadulterated throughout the millennia.
Lucky me: superstitions and blessings
Who got the coin
from the Vasiliopita this year? And what did that person say: lucky me?
It is interesting
how “luck” is so commonly associated when something good happens – “I passed the exam, I was lucky!”, “lucky I found you” and “it’s my lucky day”. Rarely does one
stop to think what does it really mean. “Luck” is meant to be something granted
to someone, above all others, in which they receive a reward. But, where does
this “luck” come from?
Luck is a superstition. Why? Luck is reliant on ‘something’ in order
for that reward to happen. Each culture has its own set of luck-based
mechanisms: four-leaf clover, rabbit’s foot, various sayings such as
‘knock-on-wood’ etc. The ancient Greeks had such a goddess for luck, Tyche, where upon
making offerings, if she looked favourable upon the person, she would grant him
good fortune when needed. And when it came true, one would say “Luck has
been granted to you”, hence the modern-phrase “It’s your lucky day”.
From these examples it can be seen since the times of antiquity people
have relied on irrational actions, such as the four-leaf clover or a deity, for
something good to happen. But, what does God offer?
God does not offer luck; He offers blessings. To say God gives out luck
suggests He looks upon one individual more than everyone else. God does not do
that because the one true God in Trinity is one of infinite love and mercy. A
God of infinite love and mercy offers everyone person, both the righteous and
the unworthy, blessings. Everyone who gets to live for this day has been
blessed; those who have not God has a reason. God, the sole Creator of the
Universal, made everything possible. Therefore, only He can grant blessings.
Again, luck imposes the idea that only certain people, or even just one person,
will get what they desire and the rest are left empty handed. Luck is a selfish
concept whilst God blesses people freely and endlessly, whether they are aware
of it or not. In the early mentioned examples, it was Him who gave the student
a clear mind during the exam, it was Him who helped the friends find each other
and it was Him who grants everyone another day to make a different. God is the
only source.
When a person kisses a priest’s hand, they are being blessed. When
icons are left in the Church’s Alter, they are being blessed. When someone wins
the coin in the Vasiliopita they will receive an additional blessing for the
year on top of all the others. When something needs to happen one needs to pray
to God for help or ask his saints to intercede. But just because people do not
get everything they want they should perhaps consider there may be a good
reason why God did not grant their request? Perhaps it was for their own good
or the timing was not right.
It should be noted that there
are no superstitions on this site. Every single Orthodox tradition,
custom and practice is based around receiving a blessing. What is interesting
is that people misinterpret certain practices and customs as something to do
with luck. This is perhaps the result of living in a highly materialist,
pop-based culture where due to the removal of God from public life, society
attempts to find other ways to obtain what they want.
Therefore, next year at the table if you win the coin in the
Vasiliopita say instead “I have received a blessing!”
The Evil Eye –
poke it out!
Every culture has
an entire encyclopaedia of superstitions which carry on their pagan heritage
even to this day. As this site is focused more so on the Greeks, it is worth
noting the ‘Evil Eye’ or Mati, one of
the most common and wide spread delusions in popular culture.
The ‘Mati’ works
on the belief that individual misfortune is caused by the envy of another.
Envious people, whether intentionally or not, have the ability to cast the evil
eye on a person with good fortune (wealth, beauty, good health etc) causing
them ill-health or some other misfortune. People are lead to believe that the
Evil Eye will scare off this ‘evil’ and offer protection. This could be any
further from the truth. A blue spot with a white circle and black dot does not
have any power – only the one Almighty God, Panagia and His army of saints has
the power to protect humanity. Evil spirits use the Evil Eye to fool people
into thinking it provides protection. Demons will run away or lift curses off
people when they start relying on the charm rather than God. In time, the
person becomes convinced the Evil Eye has saved them while the neglect their
salvation. Placing a Mati on a child will not protect them, but a Cross or icon
of Panagia will.
Commonly found as charms and bracelets it is something which should be
removed from one’s life. All forms of the Evil Eye should be cut off or blotted
out. If one wants to wear something which will scare off evil, wear the Life-Giving Cross.
There are millions upon millions of examples where making the sign of Cross or
showing the Cross has scared off a demon.
Putting one’s faith in a charm shows they have more belief in a
material object – idolatry – that in the Creator of the Universal.
The expression – ‘each
to their own’
There is a saying,
its origin is uncertain, which is very destructive not only to the individual
but to the wider community – “each to
their own”.
This saying means
that each person should not worry about what each other person is doing or not
doing in their lives and not to interfere. This is a toxic saying. It promotes
disunity and division among people, providing them with an excuse for why they
cannot or will not do something. It encourages laziness, isolation and should
not be encouraged by anyone.
Of course, people
should use their discretion for they do not know what other people are going
through in their lives. However, if this is relied upon to avoid one’s
commitments to their family, community or themselves then one should step in
and say – “each to their own leaves
everyone out in the cold”.
A fresh start
From a personal
note, I pray to God that this web resource will enlighten and encourage you and
your family to live a fully engaged life in Christ and to celebrate all the
blessings that come.
I would like to
acknowledge that this online resource would not have been made possible without
the efforts of the many pious people who have maintained and passed on the
traditions and relayed them to this site.
Anyone who has any
Orthodox traditions, customs or practices – no matter how old, unique or which
jurisdiction – please email us and
pass them on.
Lord have Mercy!
The author
A layman from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia
and New Zealand.
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