Here is a gathering of many of the traditional items – you can read the Wiki article to get details on each.  The items have all been part of it for many years – only the Qur’an is a later addition:

The bushy thing in the foreground is sprouted lentils.  In Iran the thing to do would be to float them down the river to, as I understand it, send bad things away.  If there is no river nearby you just put them outside for the rain to take.

Of course there was food.  Again, the Wikipedia article breaks it all down.  Everything was delicious and we were able to keep the lenten fast – there was fish and rice and vegetables.  After I gave the blessing Eleni and I ate – believe me – and we were full but not stuffed unlike, say, at a typical Greek event.  The food was all light and fresh, and there was no cheese or bread, which of course are huge in Greek meals, so maybe that was it:

Again, it was a fabulous evening, and the best part of it was the company – what a joy to be with everyone for this celebration.

I mentioned in the subject celebrating the New Year twice.  Earlier in the day, Jasmin, who is Persian, was baptized in our church.  Adult baptisms are always special, but this one had an interesting twist – Jasmin chose to enter the faith on this day because it is Persian New Year and therefore a fortuitous time for the new life that comes not just with spring but also baptism.  So this joyous event was in a way our first celebration of the holiday on Sunday.

He is not going to like this, but Chris Fourkas deserves a huge shout-out.  Chris, among other sterling service to our church, plows us out each year at no cost.  This saves us, I imagine, 20-30k annually.  Chrysostom not only plows but has been coordinating the removal.  He also turns up at the Cathedral at odd hours to move snow.  Last week I received the thrill of my life when I got to drive his Bobcat around:

In other Cathedral snow news…we had the flat roofs – the auditorium and the office/Tonna Room/hallway link –  cleared yesterday of snow.  I had been thinking about this after seeing reports of up to 100 different roofs collapsing in Massachusetts in the past few days.  We kind of hemmed and hawed on whether to clear the snow, and then on Friday the engineer for the building project strongly suggested we do it.  So yesterday a team of 19 guys got up there and shoveled all the snow off.  This was packed, heavy snow which only would have become heavier with tonight’s freezing rain.

And it really was a beautiful day – sunny with no wind.  The parking lot at Monadnock was full, and there was everyone from snowshoers to people jogging -really – up and down the trails.  In years past when it was this cold and windy there were maybe one or two other groups climbing, but lack of wind made this a popular day – there were actually traffic jams on the mountain in a few places.  We spent more time than usual at the summit and took some pictures, then descended a bit until we found a good place to have our lunch.  From there it was a pretty quick but cautious descent – going down is when most injuries happen.  We then repaired to George F’s house, where Sophie had her usual delicious spread for us and we celebrated with the traditional Harvey’s Bristol Cream toast.  We are especially proud of Alexander and young George, who at ages 7 and 9 proved to be true warriors.  Bill, who is a young 80, also conquered the mountain in style.

Many people think were are batty for doing this but it is truly fun and a satisfying accomplishment.  There is also the camaraderie; many of us only see each other this once a year but there is such a special bond  between us that it is like no time has passed.  It is also great exercise and a chance to do winter climbing without worrying about avalanches, pulmonary edemas, and other not-so-fun stuff associated with climbing big mountains.  Can’t wait until next year!

Here is a picture George S. snapped of me on the summit – soon to be my Facebook profile picture:

Funerals: 31.  This is about what we normally do but obviously this number can get wildly skewed – we have had 50 some years.

Baptisms: 33.  This is a bit on the low side – it is usually 40-50.  No need to panic – our baby boom continues, so I anticipate a lot of baptisms this year.  I should also point out that we usually do between 5-10 adult baptisms a year as well – we have several coming up.

Weddings: 13.  This was a big jump from the two in 2009.  Many factors come into play here – people get married in Greece or at out-of-town churches, people wait to get married because of the economy, whatever.

So there you have it.  Today is a snow day – tons of snow outside – and I am off to snowshoe.

Friday evening we had the vesperal liturgy of St. Basil followed by the Christmas pageant on the soleas of the church.  Several people asked me “is there communion tonight”?  so I figure an explanation is needed of how the Christmas services work.  We normally have two Christmas liturgies – one the night before (the liturgical day starts at sundown the night before) and one the morning of.  This tradition came about to make it easier for people to attend a service.  If Christmas falls on a Sunday or Monday then there is supposed to be only one service – the usual Sunday service if a Sunday, and since people are unlikely to go to church twice in one day if Christmas eve is a Sunday then just the Monday service.  The service this year on Friday evening was vespers, the evening service, into the liturgy of St. Basil with orthros and the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom on Christmas morning.  The liturgy of St. Basil is almost identical to the usual liturgy except the priest’s prayers after a certain point are much longer – for this reason it is thought to be an older service, with Chrysostom’s liturgy containing shortened prayers (unusual for something in the Orthodox world to get shorter rather than longer:)

So…Christmas Eve was great, with the customary huge crowds.  The pageant was beautifully done – a mixture of students reading the narratives and the choir quietly singing in the background and during processions in.  Vaia participated this year as a sheep – the sheep wear special coats and earmuffs of fuzzy material – I guess wool – and they are very cute.  Here is a picture of the gathering after the Wise Men (actually 1 boy and 2 girls this year) presented their gifts:

Saturday morning we had a nice orthros and liturgy, and it was a joy to have Fr. Emmanuel participating as he celebrated his name day.  We had maybe 150-200 people, so it was much calmer than the night before.  I prepared two chalices but only consecrated one – thinking that many of the people there had been the night before and would probably not receive again. Big mistake.  I ended up going out alone and communed about half the people there, seemingly, so it took a while.  Fr. Emmanuel gave out the antidoro solo so that everyone could wish him chronia polla.

Today we had another nice service but the combination of Christmas fatigue – two services plus family events – and the impending giant storm kept people home.  We had a small crowd similar to Grecian Festival Sunday.  Fr. Dean left early to make an emergency hospital visit, which just goes to show you that even on a holiday weekend with a blizzard about to swoop down on us you never know what is going to happen.