Epiphany in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

By -

According to the internet, Monday was Epiphany, which in Eastern Christian churches celebrates Jesus' baptism. In Bulgaria, the Orthodox church has a special service next to a river or lake. A priest throws a wooden cross into the water and tradition says that the person to pull it out will be healthy and free from evil spirits all year. Thanks to the missionaries, who told us about it, Seth, Jon and I got to see the celebration just a few minutes from our house at the Maritsa River. It was pretty cool!

Priests chant and sing a religious service accompanied by military officials. Part of the celebration here in Bulgaria is blessing the various branches of the military.

Lots of men (many of them military, judging by the number of military vehicles and buses and guys in uniform) in the river after one of them retrieved the wooden cross. Obviously, the river is pretty shallow there, but there were divers on the banks, just in case, I guess.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

By -
What a fun book to read. We read this for book club and then watched the movie (which wasn't necessary since we've all seen it so many times we were quoting the whole thing). It is better to know from the beginning that Goldman wrote it all, there is no S. Morgenstern. You feel less duped. I thought it was really obvious that Goldman is the true author (his humor is the same throughout, there's no way the language is from the era Goldman claims it is from), but, I do remember thinking it really was an abridgment when I read it in high school or junior high. And a lot of the ladies at book club didn't know the whole thing is fake either. Some decided they didn't like the book just because they felt deceived by the author. It is so funny though. And you get all this background information about Inigo, Fezzik and Buttercup. I love the way he tries to place the book in time... "This was before Europe," then later he talks about Paris. Also, when he describes...
Read more

Arrested Development, Season One (2003)

By -
I really enjoyed this and even started to feel a little addicted to it by the end. I like watching TV shows on DVD—it’s great to have no commercials and to be able to watch as many episodes as you want. Although this can also be detrimental if you watch six or eight episodes and find it’s 1:00 am when you finally force yourself to stop. Anyway, “Arrested Development” is very funny. All of the characters are hilarious and well-acted, and one of them rides a Segue! Shouldn’t more people be making fun of Segues? I’m looking forward to seeing the second season, but I don’t know if we can bring ourselves to buy it. We like to leach off of other people for our DVD needs, especially when it comes to TV shows.
Read more

No shortage

By -
Image
Two things we don't seem to have a shortage of in our area at the moment. Orange juice (at Winco in Idaho Falls): I was really taken aback by the wall of orange juice options. And grateful! The other thing we're not currently lacking is baby chickens (15 baby hens about a week or two old, in our front yard):
Read more