Last night we took the babies to church fr their 40-day churching. The Orthodox honor the Jewish tradition of waiting for 40 days to present the baby to the church. The Orthodox do it for a different reason than the Jewish faith.
We don't believe that the woman is "unclean" for 40 days after birth. It's more of a practical point: I'm friggin' exhausted, and the baby is likely to catch something from having a thousand soggy Greek lips kissing her. So women wait for 40 days to take the baby to church. The priest offers a blessing that recognizes the hard work that the mother has been slogging through. He takes the baby to the altar and formally presents the baby to the church.
It's a Greek quirk to spit when you compliment children. I suppose it's to chase away any ego that might set in if a one-month old hears you calling it cute. Yes, the Greeks there at the Ascension service complimented Sophie on her good looks and then fake-spat at her. They say ptou! ptou! or ptou sou! ptou sou! which means "ptou on you."
Pictures are here
heh. father john cracks me up. good pics, good pics!
Posted by: kat at June 1, 2006 10:55 AMthanks for sharing the pics, they are all really cute. do the greeks give the babies special "greek names" like the jew do? you know who is "kayla nishka".
Posted by: kath's mom at June 1, 2006 1:51 PMBeautiful pictures. Looks like all had a great time.
Posted by: mom at June 1, 2006 2:29 PM