The Custom of the Vasilopita in the Eastern Orthodox Church
Ever since prehistoric times people have linked all rituals - be they traditional celebrations or religious events - with food. Dozens of agricultural feasts and all religious rites, such as baptisms and funerals, are accompanied by the offering of victuals. Almost every ancient sanctuary also sports a nearby dining area, a practice that was continued by the Christian religion. The slicing of the vasilopita could not but be the continuation of a...
The Twelve Days of Christmas
The celebration of the birth of Christ, his baptism and all the related events take place during the period that starts on Christmas Eve and comes to a close on the Eve of Epiphany, January 5. In the Christian tradition, these are the twelve days of Christmas. The first Christian church had designated January 6 as the celebration day of the birth and baptism of Jesus Christ. In the...
Educational Center for Children of the World by the Greek Church’s “Mission”
Half the refugees worldwide are children and half of them do not go to school or even have the right to education. Through the Educational Center for Children of the World, the Holy Archdiocese in Athens’ NGO Apostoli [Mission] is actively involved in providing education to refugee children hosted in Athens. Since October 2017, the Center has offered the “Supporting Refugee Children’s and Youth’s Resilience Through the Provision of...
International Migrants Day: Being Properly Informed Is Power.
Approximately 70.8 million people worldwide live far from their homeland, the highest number ever recorded. Of these, 25.9 million are migrants, 57% of whom come from Syria, Afghanistan, and South Sudan. A total of 37,000 people are forced to leave their homes on a daily basis due to conflicts and persecutions. It is estimated that half of all migrants are children and of these children, more than half of...
The Universal Day of Love
On December 14, 2019, a day dedicated to Love, many will speak and say a lot about love, some may be accurate but most of them, to put it mildly, will be misleading. However, no-one has ever spoken or written about love enclosing in their words a universal truth which touches peoples’ soul, regardless of their religion, race, sex, place of origin, as St. Paul the Apostle, in his...
On the Day of Human Rights, millions of people are without rights
Since December 10, 1948, we celebrate on this date the Day of Human Rights, which was officially adopted by the United Nations General Assembly two years later, on December 4, 1950, in order to remind us 365 days a year that our world should be free, fair and peaceful, without discriminations. However, according to data retrieved from dozens of state and non-governmental organizations that monitor and control the enforcement of human...
An event in honor of Monk Mattheos Vatopedinos
A scientific and musical event to commemorate the 170th anniversary since the death of Monk Mattheos Vatopedinos (1774-1849), will be held at Pallas Theater in Athens, on Tuesday, December 10, 2019. The Monk was a great musician, codecographer and teacher of the psaltic art, whose work has been studied by researchers and musicologists and has rightly placed him among the most prominent personalities of the psaltic tradition, of the Vatopedi...
Excavations in Jerusalem ucover an Orthodox church but not the identity of the martyr in whose memory it was built
After three years of excavations, a group of Israeli archaeologists uncovers a 6th-century church 16 kilometers west of Jerusalem. The church was adorned with mosaic floors with representations of birds, fruits, and plants and a Greek inscription which mentions that the church was built in memory of a "glorious martyr", without revealing his identity.An underground crypt was found in the main section of the church which is suspected to have...
