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