Theofania

Everybody was down at the port this morning for Theofania. It's an Eastern Orthodox tradition that I have no hope of understanding (*) but it is quite obviously, no matter how much Christianity gets laid on top of it, a pagan virility contest. I have attended only once before and that was before I owned a camera.

It begins with a service at the church of St Nikolaos, in Loutraki. After the service the entire congregation, dressed in their Sunday best (with notable exceptions) proceeds behind banners to the quayside where the Papa and various dignitaries get into a fishing boat which is then sailed out into the centre of the harbour. Despite there having already been over an hour of worship and prayers inside the church, there is another ten minutes of liturgy dispensed from the boat. A wooden cross tied with a long white ribbon is hurled into the water by the Papa and pulled back in. He does this a second time. At the third hurl the unmarried lads who have been poised and ready on the quayside in their smalls dive into the water and race to the sinking cross. A dive, a retrieved cross and the victor swims to the boat where he is hauled in, the other lads swim back to the waters edge and it's all over.

The notable exceptions to the Sunday best are the young women, including those newly married and those nursing new babies, who dress in the most flirtatious style imaginable – tiny skirts and killer heels. If you told me they were on their way home from last night's clubbing I'd believe you without hesitation, but coming straight out of a church service??

*Edit - I have now learned that we are variously blessing the sea and celebrating Jesus' own baptism apparently.