ORTHODOX EPIPHANY
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Strange tradition: diving into cold waters to retrieve a wooden cross thrown by a priest. All over Greece.
This Christian festival (Θεοφάνια/Theophania) gives rise to a strange custom in Orthodox countries: young men dive and race in very cold water to retrieve a wooden cross thrown by a priest. It's an evocation of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by Saint John the Baptist. In Greece, people dive into the sea at Piraeus, Thessalonica or Nafplio, in rivers and wherever there's water. In Athens, for example, this takes place at Dexameni, an ancient cistern at the foot of Mount Lycabetta.
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