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IO THE PRESBYTERS
Merchandise.*' Yet not as much so as is sometimes the
case in our American churches, where fairs and festivals
are held within their sacred walls.
Friday there were services in every church, consisting
in the reading or chanting of the services; we Americans
went that night to the Russian church in Athens,
the crowd there being not so large, and the music very
fine, while in the Greek churches the singing is usually
c.Table. The bishops, four or five in number, were attired
011 this occasion in very handsome black velvet
robes.trimmed With silver bands several inches wide, and
the Archbishop had on his head a mitre sparkling with
diamonds. They all came out and stood in front of the
bier, turning their backs to the people. At the head
and foot of the bier were burning a number of large
wax tapers, while each worshipper held a lighted taper
in his hand.
The <J[ rvii'ec nn>r.> rni.l Km. KI 1-? - 1
?. i vtui i>\ mv iuMKip in a ciear and
distinct voice, alternating; in ancient Greek and Russian,
or faintly chanted by the choir in the gallery. The bishops
with their silver censers of burning incense, were
bowing and making many genuflexions to one another,
to the bier, and to the pictures hanging around. Once
during the service the bier was taken up and carried
011 the shoulders of two bishops around the church, the
people following with their burning tapers, and brought
in again and laid in state as before.
Finally, it was taken out and borne in procession
through some of the principal streets, the people with the
lights, bishops and priests attending, and everything conducted
just as in the*usual funeral procession in Athens,
pxrenl that ill o. ? -1 *'T *
r. ... ^. u>i <_ < uui ci^ inv:v jjii^s aiong: L.ord
liavc mercy! Lord have mercy!" not in a very reverential
manner, as boys in front run and jump, and play
leap frog while crying out these solemn words. There
is always a procession of this kind from each church.
The appearance of these processions with the lighted
tapers is very beautiful. Some were attended by music
and all by bishops and priests in their priestly robes.
()n Saturday night at midnight "The Resurrection"
was celebrated. The Metropolitan church was the place
of attraction.as the Royal Family are expected to attend
there. At eleven p. m., the doors were opened ami the
services began. At twelve the Archbishop, attended by
the other, bishops and priests, walked down, lighting
and burning incense, chanting, etc.. and out at the door
to the large platform, which had been erected for the purpose,
and were there met by the King and Queen and
others of the court. After a short service the Archbishop
turned to the Queen and from his lighted taper
lit hers, saying, "Christ is risen." To which the reply
is made. "He is risen indeed." So from one to another
until every taper is burning and every voice annonnr
ing, the "Glad Tidings," fireworks are lit up, the Acropolis
and its ruins are beautifully illuminated. Groups
of men, women and children, each carrying his lighted
taper, are formed, the dhurch bells are rung, cannon
fired, music played, and the whole city becomes, in the
midst of midnight darkness, one blaze of light and joy
? ?i-- i t
?a on ucauuiui type ot a i^nristian life in a dark
world of sin, if each would carry his lighted taper and
call out the glad tidings of the risen Savior. Sabbath
morning, Easter Sunday, is the one day of outward
IN OF THE SOUTH. April 7, 1909.
"Rest." in that land. Shops are closed, business of all
kinds suspended, even the market, and but few are seen
on the streets. An American, traveling in Europe, happening
to be in Athens on this particular Sunday, wrote
home that there was not sufch a Sabbath keeping people
on earth as the Greeks, when lo! of the fifty-two Sabbaths
this one alone is observed as a day of rest!
We were told that there is much feasting on that day,
each family providing themselves with a whole lamb,
or in cases of poverty, two or three families invest in
one lamb which is roasted whole and eaten with bitter
herbs.
The "Ifoly Days" continue through Monday, all work
is still set aside and the feasting continues. One particular
nhsprv-mro <?f tliiw ,lif I.- ...........
w ? ??_? in in*. i_iir>n?ui ui scuilllljf
from one neighbor to another loaves of bread accompanied
by boiled eggs, dyed in rich and variegated hues.
The writer remembers one occasion, during a prolonged
sojourn among these interesting people, of receiving
over one hundred and fifty boiled eggs and fifty loaves
of bread! As it was impossible to consume the same,
they served to send over to Mr. Themistocles Stamatapoula.
or to the family of Aristotle, our next door neighbor.
or to Ioannon, the widow of John, whose family
lav sick, or vet arrain tn Pana ripmptrina
- 0 ~ lliv >
priest.
But considerable caution had to be practiced not to
return the article to the original sender, which would
have given unpardonable offense. The variety and grotesqueness
of the loaves of bread, and the ingenuity
practiced in the dying and in the carving in the dye of
beautiful designs, are. wonderful. A loaf of bread would
sometimes be in tlie form of a large fish belching forth
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caudal fins. Beasts, birds and flowers were all represented
in .bread, each loaf decorated with colored eggs,
spices, and even bits of bright colored flannels, while
the eggs are often gems of exquisite workmanship in
the delicate tracery of beautiful designs with the pen
or pen-knife after they are dyed.
One of the happiest things to this Greek Easter, is
that it is a time of generfU making up of all quarrels
or feuds, every man will shake hands with his bitterest
enemy on the first meeting after the resurrection, saying,
"Christ is risen," and the answer will be given,
"He is risen indeed." However, the quarrel may be
renewed the next day and kept up the entire twelve
iuuiiins, sucn is tne vascillating character of our modern
Greek.
The more thoughtful reader may ask, do all Greeks
take part in the follies of this occasion? To which the
reply must be made: most certainly not. There are
many of the older and more sober who never participate
in such absurdities and actions, while some of the more
sensible, heartily disapprove of and condemn them.
Yet not all that should be done is being done by the
Greet: church to counteract, and still less to prevent;
stirli an arlniivtnro r>( ''
v.. O..W iwn.y.
Missed opportunities may be the curse or the blessing
of a life. Rightly remembered, they become the best
stimulus to careful watching and grasping of those that
yet pass.