Devshirme

The Greek Boston site has more parade pictures.  If you click here it should bring you to the first of our pictures.  Continue clicking on the right arrow above each picture to see all of them.  There are about 5 or 6 showing our group.

Today was the annual Greek Independence Day parade in Boston, and it turned out to be fabulous.  We were all expecting rain (I, who has no umbrella, was particularly dreading walking and getting soaked).  And we ended up having a fairly sunny day and pleasant, not-too-warm-or cold weather.  It is funny because today was the feast of St. Mark, and the Liturgy of St. Mark includes prayers for rainfall (it is a liturgy from Egypt, so it has these prayers and prayers for the rising of the Nile) and yet most people were saying “please pray for _no_ rain!”.  The Greek School children marched with vigor, and the float was in tip-top shape.   Many thanks to the Marine USA, who graciously wrap and store our float each year, as well as the Greek School teachers and PTA.  Here is a picture that Eva P. took of Robin (me) and Batman (Fr. Dean).  A cropped version of this is my new profile picture on Facebook.  I imagine the Greek Boston site will have pictures up soon, and I will link to it when that happens.

Yesterday afternoon I pulled into the parking lot during the middle of Greek School time and noticed a whole bunch of crossovers, SUVs and mini-vans.  Something clearly was up!  Sure enough, the Greek School PTA mothers were hard at work in the Tonna Room decorating Easter candles.  They will be on sale after church to benefit the PTA and add a lot of color to the services when they will reappear at Pascha.  Here is Olga holding a couple of freshly decorated candles and doing her best to try to duck out of the picture:)