Celebrating Epiphany with South Australia’s Greek community

What does it mean in the Greek culture when someone retrieves the Holy Cross during the annual Blessing of the Waters?

“It’s a really empowering feeling,” says South Australian, Fotis Likouras, who retrieved the cross at this year’s Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia (GOCSA) ceremony held on Sunday January 8, at Henley Beach.

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Fast Facts about Epiphany Day

• On the sixth of January, the Christmas holidays in Greece officially come to an end with the ‘festival of light’, also known as Epiphany or ‘Theophania’
• On Epiphany, the Greek Orthodox Church performs the ‘Great Blessing of the Waters’.
• According to tradition, a priest surrounded by young people, throws a cross into the sea, either from the harbour or from a boat at sea; the minute the cross leaves the priest’s hand, the divers jump into the water to catch the cross.
• The lucky person who retrieves and returns the cross is blessed by the priest.