Xristos Anesti! (Good Friday, Holy Saturday)

Alithos anesti!

No more days :) I was baptised yesterday, and my name's officially Kyriaki now. I've been trying to decide what to write for ages and so avoiding making this post.

Partly I'm exhausted but I don't feel that much more sick than I would expect after a week of long services and very little sleep.

Okay, recap.

Friday morning we went to Church...haha...oh Friday was a weird day. We got there - half an hour late - and they still hadn't started doing anything. The schedule had said that we were going to do the Hours (a particular service, we only do it for the greatest feasts) in the morning, but we ended up decorating the Epitaphion instead, which is the...well, the best way to describe it is a 4 poster table! it has a roof, and then we cover the whole thing in a carpet of flowers in different designs. I got a thousand photos, when I drag myself up out of bed and find the camera I'll post them. Somewhere between doing that, cleaning like mad (including the concrete of the carpark!), picking up the font from another church and then eating lunch...it was about 3pm I think when we finally got to church. Jeremy, Father and I read Vespers while everyone else finished up decorating. Basically noone comes to our Good Friday services, unfortunately.
Anyway, after that, Jeremy looked at me and went hmm I think we better go home. So I went back with him to his place and crashed (in my clothes!) in the bed that was still made up on the floor in his living room, until he woke me up about four hours later - he'd done the dishes and had a nap but I was totally unaware of all of that. Sleep was good. I ate a salad sandwich, we picked up Troy, and at 9 we had the Burial Service, matins for Holy Saturday. A long service, with beautiful lamentation hymns, and a procession around the Church a couple times symbolising walking to the tomb. As we left we got flowers, and hung around talking for a while, then went in search of my godmother who was not at other-church so we went to her place and I passed out on the floor.

SATURDAY. Hoo boy. I can try to explain but it's all a bit of a blur so I might wait for a photo recap for most of it.
I got up about 8ish, had a shower and got dressed - bathing suit, baptismal clothes and then a jacket and long black skirt over the top so I didn't look too weird for the hours before the service itself. We got there, early, and I wandered around freaking out. I'd forgotten when we invited the other priests that priests don't *do* just being guests - so we had three priests concelebrate our baptism :) That was wonderful. Father noticed me freaking out though so he said Kyriaki come help me set up. I don't know that I actually did anything, but it kept me sort of busy wandering around and helping people figure out where they were, and finally...we sat down in the front row, Father talked to everyone, and we walked out the back, I shed the top layers, and we started the first part of the service. The Orthodox baptismal service is kind of long, but basically it starts in the foyer, facing away from the altar, renouncing the devil and having prayers read over you. Traditionally you spit on the devil but we just kind of breathed on the ground instead...spitting's messy :P We turned around, pledged ourselves to Christ, knelt, said a few more prayers and got up to say the Creed. That all done, we wandered up to the font at the front of the Church. More prayers were read, and then I sat down because Troy was getting baptised first. When he wandered off dripping to dress again, it was my turn and after a few more prayers I climbed up and down into the tub, and stood there. My godmother rubbed oil on every part of me she could get to, which felt really really weird. Then for each member of the Trinity I knelt down as far as I could without not being able to breathe, and Father threw water and oil over me, then I stood back up again. By the time I got out I may as well have been put fully under, I was that wet! I climbed out into a sheet and towel held by my godmother, and had crosses marked on my face in a cross, my nose, mouth, ears, hands, legs, feet, back...and probably other places that I don't remember! Everything that was done had a prayer that went with it, and everything meant something. The final few things were putting on a new white shirt, and my cross, which is buttery smooth yellow gold and sooo pretty.... anyway, that done, we ran off for me to get dressed, and came back to finish the service. Honestly, after that it's a bit of a blur. I remember the procession around the baptismal font, and standing in front of that altar while the Gospel was read, and Father threatening in a whisper to marry us since we were already there, in white... When I get the photos, my memories will make a bit more sense I think.

Everyone came up to us and wished us kala paradiso (happy paradise, you don't say 'congratulations' because congratulations are only temporary), and kissed both cheeks, and we escaped into the other hall. We just sat around, ate fruit and nuts and nummy pita brought by one of the ladies, drank coffee, and got given presents - we have such generous friends.

After that though, we were exhausted. Everyone went to their respective homes, and we rested for a few hours. I grabbed noodles on the way home and ate them rapidly so I'd get to eat them before I needed to begin the fast for taking communion. Annoyingly, I got really hungry at about 8pm, and couldn't do anything about it! About 9:30 we got a call from Jeremy asking to meet at Troy's place (halfway between) as he was running late. It was bucketing down with rain so Dad and I jumped in the car as fast as we could, and drove through huuuuuge puddles. By the time we got down there it had stopped raining though, so that was good. I went in, grabbed Troy, and then Jeremy got there so we jumped in his car and drove to Church. We were still early - 'arabic time' amuses me. I'd left my candle home (silly kyri) but there was some decorated ones at Church so I picked one up and we started the service, sitting with my godmother and daniel. It was one of those services where not understanding the arabic (and it was mostly in arabic) really didn't matter. Every now and then a hymn or something would be in english (thankyou, Jeremy and Abouna), and I'd catch up to where we were in the service. Wonderfully, it wasn't raining for our procession (though apparently it was for the one at my other church), so we went out to have some more of the service outside...and then back to the Church door, where Abouna took the role of Christ, and banged hard on the doors of the Church telling them to open up. The people inside (the devil and hades, basically) yelled back who is it? "The King of Glory!" "Who is this King of Glory?" "The Lord strong and mighty..." eventually, he 'smashed the doors open' and we all ran in, still chanting, and swung all the chandeliers which was good fun. FUN! The service went from that, and a LOT of chanting of Xristos Anesti/Al'Masih Qam, which is actually a longer hymn:
"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life", to the DL service (ie Mass), except we kept chanting Xristos Anesti instead of other hymns that we would do normally. A very joyous service, good fun. And we got mentioned in the sermon...at which point I promptly turned bright red...and I took Communion for the first time. It's...wow... To hear 'the handmaid of God, Kyriaki...' is...there are no words to describe :) The peanut gallery in the choir applauded as we took Communion, which was weird but nice. As we walked back to our pew the lady that sits in front of us informed me that I could get my own antidoron (blessed bread, we grab it as we come back from Communion and eat it/give it to those who can't take Communion/both), so she didn't need to do it! We'll get some for our friend who usually sits with us though.

After the service was over we collected eggs, kissed a thousand people saying "Al'Masih qam" "Hakan qam", smashed eggs with one another and ate them (they're boiled), ate baklava, talked, and then escaped over to Greekchurch where we had been promised double fried chicken by our friend Nikos. And it was there...and the bishop was there too, so we kissed his hand...and ate food...and there was sushi...and sashimi, which the bishop was trying to get my friend Andrew to eat...and it was so much fun and we were soooo dead by the time we finally escaped at 4am. I got home about 4:45, and fell into bed.

Today has been peaceful but I feel very dehydrated for some reason, and I'm exhausted for obvious reasons. I'm hoping to get a good night's sleep tonight and then we'll see how the week goes :)

1 day - Holy Wednesday + Holy Thursday

This will be quick. Things have shifted gears to being even more nuts, so I'm grabbing a few minutes to type this at 1:15 in the morning after coming home from Church.

Wednesday. Well... I slept, Wednesday morning rather than going to Progeismena, which I really needed, but I didn't sleep enough. Most of Wednesday I just hung around the house, except for buying a new recipe magazine and making up a bag of dried fruit and nuts to snack on because there's practically nothing else around (that's reasonably healthy) that I can eat. I dozed for an awful lot of it, having lit the candle by my bedside in front of the icons. I've been so tired recently, I could use all the help I can get. That evening I got all dressed up, bought a bottle of olive oil, and caught the train into the city to meet Troy and Jeremy - and went to Church. The service Wednesday night is the sacrament of Holy Unction - healing of both soul and body, and was one of the more beautiful services to just listen to I've been to. Something I've really appreciated during Holy Week is that we have no real need for sermons, there is so much theology in the hymns which elaborate on the Gospel/epistle readings. We sometimes get homilies as well though :) Long story short, it's a very long, beautiful service with several Gospel and epistle readings (after each other), and with each of the sets of readings a new...well, they're like little metal discs with a wick in them that float - a new one got added to the bowl that the priest had poured a little oil from each persons' bottle into. It was a very cool lamp! Eventually there were 7 (I think) and it glowed! At the end, we all lined up, kissed the book of the Gospels and the Cross, and then had a cross marked in oil on our forehead, hands and throat with a blessing from the priest.
We took Troy home, and then I slept at Jeremy's so I could get up in the morning for church, and actually got to sleep quite early.

Church this morning... well, it started at 6. So I got up at 5:30. Ugh. It was worth it though - a weird service, for the Mystical Supper (aka the Lord's/Last Supper), a combination of Vespers (evening service - yes we were doing it in the morning, yes I know that's weird) and the Divine Liturgy (mass). Lots of the once a year people came - just in time for Communion, having stayed home for the rest of the service, and then left as soon as they had taken it. Sigh. If you can't say anything nice.... so I'm not going to say any more about that.
Jeremy had to work, but was working from home, so we went back to his place and he worked while I pulled out my arabic textbook and started trying to learn it a bit. It's not as hard as it looked when I first saw it, but it's not easy either. Writing it is fun! Lots of sweeping curves, like writing cursive. I got a few exercises done - most of the first chapter, and my vocab list now has five words on it. Now to try and LEARN them!
After that though...new experience. Troy met us at the Church and we talked to Father about stuff - mostly, our backgrounds and he asked us a lot of questions to make sure we actually knew stuff before we got baptised. Apparently we answered well enough :) And then... well, it's hard to explain, and I'm not going to go into it because I can't find a way to do it. But we had Confession for the first time (though strictly speaking it's not the sacrament as we're not baptised...complicated) and whatever I thought Confession would be like, it's not. Very hard to explain, but very beautiful, and I felt much lighter. Everyone's told me 'you know, you don't confess to the priest', and I never understood that until now. You don't even look at the priest - you're staring at the carpet or at the icon of Christ that you're kneeling before. He's just a witness. Beyond that, I'll not say more. Some things are just too private to talk about.
We spent the afternoon just being blobs at Troy's house while Jeremy did some more work at his, and we had the usual drama with busses and Troy not having the internet so not being able to check the train timetable and trying to get in contact with his housemate and her not answering her phone and... in the end, we got to Church - we got lost in the process, and we were technically late, but the service started half an hour late anyway so not an issue. Tonight's service was for the Crucifixion and hoo boy. There is no honest way of describing this service.
Twelve Gospel readings, and you stand for all of them - and they're LONG. In between, the hymns explore the themes and events of the Gospel that was just read, and they go from the Mystical Supper all the way to the soldiers guarding the tomb. Very long service, very beautiful one, including a very memorable procession - and an icon...well, it's kind of like a 2D statue. Th Cross is one 'statue', but it's wooden and flat, painted. Hanging on it is a 'statue' of Christ - cut the shape, but flat, and then painted. Hard to explain, but you can't look at it and not be moved. The cross is taller than I am when it's in its stand in the centre of the Church. This was carried out by the priest in procession a couple times, completely in the dark except for candles...haunting.
Again, the 'countdown' - each of the candlestands at the front had the normal candles lit, but around each of them there were 6 tapers, and one was lit after every Gospel until they were all lit. These things are just...wonderful.

Not-Greek-Church ends up finishing early a LOT, so we went from there with Daniel (Jeremy had choir practice) to Greek-Church where it was standing room only so we went into the hall that had a live video screen of inside the Church. We sat with Jo, and stood for the Gospels and anything we understood - and I must confess, we talked a bit during the long hymns and readings that we couldn't understand. Usually on spiritual things...but we were talking. So was everyone else in the hall though, so...

We hung around, talked, laughed, ate bread and oreos (totally vegan and oil free, woohoo) and watched the first part of the Passion of the Christ, which none of us liked. So we turned it off, and came home!

I'm going to go pass out now. I don't think I'll have a chance to write before Sunday - so I'll see you then, if not before.

Holy Tuesday pt 2

Apparently I'm not the only getting totally confused by what day it is - Jeremy can't remember what day it is either, and we ended up using the tv programs that were on tonight at his house while we were eating dinner to figure it out. You know it's holy week when...

actually, that's a decent idea for a list. Here a few of the things that I've been discovering -

You know it's Holy Week when:

• vegetable soup is so totally a food group. ditto rice
• pasta tastes perfectly good on its own, thanks
• your sister points out that you were reciting the Trisagion prayers and Psalm 50 (51) while you were chopping up vegies for soup
• you can't remember what day it is, but you know what time all the services were today and exactly how much sleep you *should* get tonight
• you can tell everyone exactly what happened on every day of Holy Week in the Gospels
• reading prayer books by candlelight is perfectly normal
• you realise you haven't checked your email all day at midnight
• you pack clothes for an overnight stay where you're going to be going to Church in the morning, and automatically pack black/navy everything
• you've figured out how to do the small prostration (bow from the waist to touch the floor then cross yourself) holding a chunky lighted candle
• you've figured out how to do full prostrations with a lighted candle
• you've decided that you don't care how silly it looks, scarves tied babushki style (under the chin) don't fall off the way they do practically every other way
• there are palm crosses in every room of your house
• someone says 'glory...' and you automatically finish it with 'to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and to the ages of ages amen'. bonus points for doing it in a foreign language
• you feel out of place when everyone's speaking english
• you have hymns stuck in your head and weird people out as you chant 'Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, doxa si O Theos' in the shower
• your eyes hurt in bright light at coffee hour
• you finish 'forever and ever' with 'and to the ages of ages amen' (though this one's more a 'you know you're Orthodox when' thing)
• you are scouring recipe books for Pascha recipes, while observing the strictest form of the fast
• nestissmo is an english word, right?
• you mark off tomorrow's date by accident on your calendar when you get home
• you've discovered the best ways to lean on pews during reeaaaalllyyyy long Gospel readings
• you have almost set someone's hair on fire with your candle. Multiple times.
• you and your friend try to juggle a heavy prayer book, a fan and a massive lit candle between the two of you and manage to cross yourself multiple times at the same time
• four hours sleep is a good night's sleep
• you go to a service that begins at 7:30, and get there at 7:20, when you usually don't get up before 10
• you start to forget that there is a normal world
• your family start wondering if your crazy is contagious
• your family start asking when you're going to become a nun
• your sister announces that she's sick of vegetable soup, and you say oh good more for me
• loukoumia is the best snack ever
• you can understand half the gospel when it's read in Greek/Slavonic/Arabic, even though you don't speak much of the language
• you can chant hymns you don't chant any other time of the year in several languages
• you realise that you've only been home for six hours total today, and you're about to go out again...and not get home until midnight
• bus drivers ask why you're so dressed up to go into the city on a Tuesday night, and then you end up telling them a paraphrased version of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins
• bread is more of a staple food than ever before
• you can't eat eggs, but you handle a zillion of them while dying them red
• you wonder where you can find a wooden egg, or egg shaped rock, to paint red and beat everyone in the egg cracking
• you plan dishes of sausage with cheese, and LOTS of chocolate, for Pascha
• you don't expect to sleep before dawn on Easter Sunday
• you've figured out how to do prostrations even when your skirt is long and narrow and you step on the hem
• prostrations don't bother you in the slightest anymore, hard work? what do you mean?
• you do, however, envy your priests ability to bounce from prostration to standing up again without moving his feet
• you find yourself muttering litanies and psalms in foreign languages absent mindedly
• you haven't read anything or watched anything fictional in days
• you answer every invitation by non-Orthodox friends with 'sorry, it's easter' 'what, all week!?!?!?!' 'yup.'
• you never realised how many black skirts and blouses you owned

that's addictive. I better stop and go to bed, I need to survive tomorrow night.

Tonight was beautiful. A lot of the things on that list happened today, including me making 'prayer soup' which is kind of like a minestrone. I call it prayer soup because a) I eat it during fasts (more like, live on it) and b) I basically throw a bunch of vegies, beans, pasta and tomatoes in a pot and pray that it works!

Now I am going to go pass out, and refuse to get up in the morning. Sounds wonderful.

4 days - Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday pt 1

I was told that Holy Week is nuts. Now I understand!

I had a non-Church day yesterday until the evening, but I was shopping with my mum for the last few things I needed clothes-wise for Saturday. You need sunglasses to look at me all dressed up in bright white! It's good fun. Now that's organised, and I'm a bit more relaxed on that side of things. I got very tired though, and ended up resting lots. I got some other clothes, too - mostly things that I needed, but also a top that I didn't need but is beautiful and we got on sale. Black and white, kimono style, very comfy.

I came home and rested, and then went out again to koorong (protestant bookstore chain here) to get Jeremy's name day present - the new OSB (a version of the Bible mostly based on the NKJV but the Old Testament is translated from older manuscripts in our bibles) has just come out, and he needs a case for it, right? *smile* They have really good ones with plenty of pockets, and hardwearing...and best of all, they're canvas on the outside...now, what's a needlewoman to do with all that blank canvas? I've got a lot of spare moments, just not at home, so I'm going to take my tailor's chalk, needles, and deep reds, greens, blues, golds, whites, purples.... the case is black, so I'll use the liturgical colours. I'm putting his name on it, and a Cross, we'll see what else beyond that. Mine's going to have a peacock, an ancient Christian symbol of eternal life. Troy assumed I was going to x-stitch it, but I don't think so. It doesn't need it, and decorative stitches will work just as well.

After that I met Jeremy in the city at his work, then we went to pick up Troy and get to the bridegroom service, this time in Greek. They messed a few things up, much to our amusement, but most people wouldn't have noticed. Beautiful, beautiful. All the lights were down very low there too, which just added to it... and I get to go again tonight! Everyone is 'dressing dark', in purples, blacks, navy. Technically red isn't a 'dark' colour but it's not mandated that we dress dark, and it's better than wearing my white jacket! The colours match the mood of the services, and the week in general. I've never experienced a religion that acts out the intellectual side of things practically like this before - even the anglicans and catholics always seemed somewhat like they were playing a role. This is just honest - we don't dress dark because we 'should', we do because it's how we feel. How could you not feel sober, dressed like this, holding candles, while the choir chants solemnly:

Behold, the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night, and blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching; and again unworthy is he whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, lest thou be overcome with sleep, lest thou be given up to death, and be shut out from the Kingdom. But rouse thyself and cry: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God, through the Mother of God, have mercy on us.

Best of all is that when we sorrow, we sorrow...and when we rejoice, we REALLY rejoice! Pascha is going to be wonderful.

I am getting my days thrown out of whack though - because our liturgical day starts at sundown, and we have been having the services for monday on sunday night, tuesday on monday night, etc, I keep thinking it's wednesday! Not necessarily a bad thing though :)

I slept on Niki's floor last night, on a futon mattress she keeps under the bed. It was just easier than trying to get to a 7:30 service from my house, 45 minutes away. It was hard enough to get up as it was! Service this morning was worth it though - presanctified liturgy, in Greek, and I wasn't chanting! And I got to hold the beautiful Photini after, too - my friend Eleni's little girl who is about 5 months old and very chubby, and adorable.

And now I am home, resting for a while, before I go out again tonight. I really need a nap, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to as it's during the day. Lots of coffee instead maybe :)

5 Days - Palm Sunday

I've had a full day again, and now I'm tired and thinking about going to bed. Fair warning for those who don't want to read it - the next few days are going to be not about stitching, but about life (as usual) and a LOT about religion, specifically praxis (the living out of) during Holy Week. This week is our high holy days for the year, and I'm in that mindframe - and that's pretty much what I'm doing, too, being at Church. Tune in for your regularly scheduled stitchiness next week (I think.) Please do read though, it's actually interesting, and I'm explaining things as it's all new to me too.

I got up earlyish today to get ready for Church - Palm Sunday! This begins Holy Week, for us. Sober, beautiful...

Palm Sunday is a much bigger deal in the Orthodox Church than it ever was in any of my previous churches. Added to this, Troy's friends Daniel and Connor came and they're not used to Orthodox services...hoo boy :)
We did Orthros (Matins) and Divine Liturgy, as usual - except, being a Great Feast, a bunch of the hymns changed slightly, we skipped some things, and we added others. When you rely on the service book because half of it's in Arabic (as Troy's friends) did, that makes life complicated, and when the girl next to you (me) has the changeable parts all typed out. They didn't seem to mind though. The Church was decorated - I posted a photo of what it looks like a few days ago, and the things used in procession were decorated too which I hadn't seen. The lanterns on poles, crosses, etc, all had flowers and palms tied to them. I didn't get a photo, but you can probably imagine. When the service ended (and I've never seen the temple so full!!) we all headed out in procession - the lantern, cross, etc, bearers at the front, followed by the choir, and Abouna (Father), and then the rest of us carrying blessed palms and olive branches and candles. Around the entire block! It would have been interesting to watch for someone who didn't know, I think! Good fun.

After that we wandered over to greekchurch to see our other priest (who is baptising us), and have lunch, which was....interesting. Church politics are complicated. Anyway, that unhappiness aside, I learned how to make greek coffee, got to look through the new OSB (a Bible with the old testament translated from the Septuagint, which is what we use, rather than the later hebrew texts), decided what to make Jeremy for his name day gift and sorted through some of the formalities of our baptisms. Our names are decided once for all now, including their spelling, and now we just need to survive Holy Week and turn up on Saturday!
I hung out with Jo and a bunch of other friends, and got a new komboiskini - a prayer rope, which is used for counting rote prayers - same principle as a rosary, but less structured and we usually only say one prayer on it (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the/a sinner), mine's 33 knots long and the size of a bracelet - which is why it's currently on my wrist, and going to stay there. I had one, and so did Troy, but I have beaded ones so I gave Troy mine when he lost his. Then he went and lost that one too, and I can't sleep with a beaded one wrapped around my wrist and leave it home a lot. So, I've got a new one now. This one's got a gold coloured diamond bead to join the loop, rather pretty. Prayer ropes are generally knotted, and made out of wool - usually black. They can be anything from 33 knot (the smallest I've seen, and the most common) through 50, 100, more.... I've never seen anything bigger than 100 knot one though!

Jo's mum invited us to their place for a while, so a bunch of us went there and she fed us - fish (it's a great feast, so fish is allowed, YAY), dolmades, coleslaw made without mayonnaise, chips and stuff, and best of all - honeycomb to chew on. YUMMMMM. I also got given a bunch of table covers in red gauze with gold embroidery, which were a gift they don't use and I like, and some greek biscuits (cookies) I forget the name of but have had before.

Finally we had the Bridegroom Service tonight - long story, but it's a solemn service that's held Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights of Holy Week - only about an hour long, and remembering the events of the following days (ie we commemorated Monday's tonight) in the Gospel accounts. Weird, but true - our liturgical day is like the Jewish one, we start the day at sundown, so on the Church calendar it's technically Monday. Just...hauntingly beautiful. And we dropped in to see Niki (my godmother) who bought me some shoes (yay! they're gorgeous) for when I dress up after, and other practical things that I need, and wanted to touch base with me. I'm staying at her place tomorrow night after Church, so I can go to Church again in the morning - 7:30am start, I must be nuts. At least she only lives 5 minutes drive from the Church!

And now I'm home. And tired. And going to bed soon. I need to eat something though, preferably something with meat and dairy in it as I begin a proper fast (vegan) this week as it's Holy Week, even if I've been following a modified Rule before due to being sick. I'm sure I'll find something :) Mac'n'cheese with tuna maybe.