January 6

Today was the Epiphany holiday, which is thought to be the birthday of Jesus Christ since he was baptized today, with the baptism symbolizing rebirth. With that, there is typically a ceremony where a priest is on a platform with officials present and a cross is thrown into the sea. Then, people will jump into the water and retrieve the cross. Unfortunately, we did not get to view this ceremony today because the weather was very windy and rainy. Before this ceremony, there is a service at the church. Our group first gathered outside the church. The church service was a very communal gathering and other people were flooding out the doors of the church, and a few students managed to shuffle through the doors and glimpse inside to view the service. During the service, holy water was also provided outside in metal containers that people could either bottle up and take with them or cup it into their hands and drink, throw onto their head, or rub it onto their hands. The water in all these aspects plays an important role since it can represent the symbol of rebirth, through baptism, or it can represent life, healing, and washing away your sins. 

The next stop after the church service was a drive down the coast towards Cape Sounion, where we would see the Temple of Poseidon. Back in antiquity, there was a lot of boat traffic so the spot where the temple lies was a very strategic spot. The temple was built therefore not only to worship the god of the sea, but also to help control who would go by the cape. The temple was built around the same time as the Parthenon, but is more worn down because the location and weather have not been as kind.

Our last location the group went to was the Monastery of St. Paul, which is inhabited by nuns who come from over 14 different countries. Inside one of the buildings lies a mural that were painted with resources from the land, such as goat milk and minerals. The artist who painted it created it within four days. Afterwords, we chatted with one of the sisters about her daily life and asked her a couple questions before we ended up in the monastery’s little shop.