St. John the Baptist Day

On a clear but windy day, Jesse and I took a mopehead ride down the beach to the church (a Greek Orthodox) where we met up with Mike. It was St. John the Baptist Day, a day on which all Greeks went to church and on which there is great celebration. The church was beautiful inside with tons of icons and stained glass windows. Inside, the men stood on one side and the women on the other, and so, as I stood on the side with the women listening to the Priest go on talking gibberish (Greek), Jesse stood on the other side with Mike, who translated everything for him. From the church, everybody went down to the beach where the festivities began. It is traditional in Greece that on this day, the Priest blesses a wooden cross tied to a rope and then throws it in the water. Then the young men (and middle aged men) compete with each other to retrieve the cross from the water. It wasn't much of a competition because the water was too shallow and the cross floated. However, they served drinks and Greek cookies afterwards. Mmmmm cookies. After the ceremony, we went with Mike to the cross throwing ceremony at a different marina, where it was more of competition for the guys jumping in becasue it was cold, windy and the water was deeper. And we got more cookies and juice after this ceremony too! Also, afterwards, we tried Greek moonshine, which some guy was just handing out, pouring the white lightning from his water bottle. It wasn't even that bad. :)