#ecclesiasticalnightlife

There are at least three Divine Liturgies in Thessaloniki every day, at various churches (that I know of. Most days there are more. And now a lot of churches are doing forty Liturgies for the Christmas fast - Nov 15-Dec 24). There are also quite a few churches who do Liturgy on Friday night rather than on Saturday morning. The Crypt of St. Demetrios is one of them, they do Divine Liturgy between 8:30-10:00 pm approximately, and there is another church that does it at 7:00 pm. There are also two churches that regularly have Friday night vigils (Vespers, Orthros, Divine Liturgy), going from about 8:30 or 9:00 pm until 12:30 or 1:00 am. Other churches do vigils for various feast days as well.

A number of weeks ago, on the eve of St. Luke the Evangelist (Friday, October 17), I stopped into St. Panteleimon, the church that does Liturgy at 7:00 pm on Friday. I thought it started at 9:00 so I got there right before Communion, I stayed until the end of Liturgy, and then I decided to stop into some of the other vigils for a few minutes before going home and going to bed. I went to St. Athanasios where they were just about to start the Artoklasia (blessing/ breaking of bread) during Vespers. I stayed until the end of the Artoklasia and asked for a piece to take home since I was going to leave. As I was leaving the church, I recognized some of the people who were just coming in as being the same people who had been at the Liturgy at St. Panteleimon. That made a big impression on me – just as some people take Friday night as the opportunity to bar-hop, these people were church-hopping. It made me coin the phrase “Ecclesiastical night life.” Thessaloniki’s ecclesiastical night life is very rich, especially on Fridays! It makes me feel good that I’m not alone J

Allow me to open a short parenthesis: On Sunday, November 2, Fr. Spyro took three of us Greek-Americans to Grevena in central-northern Greece for the installation of the new metropolitan there (David) who is an old friend of his (it made the enthronement in Pittsburgh three years ago look like nothing…it felt like the whole city of Grevena came to welcome their new bishop, and there was security everywhere! See the pictures below).

Everyone gathered in the town square for speeches before the enthronement service.

People awaiting the arrival of the bishops outside the cathedral.

People outside the cathedral.

The cathedral was packed - inside and out!

At the end of the service, after it had gotten dark. Still a lot of people!

AXIOS (WORTHY!) written in flowers over the Beautiful Gate of the cathedral.

Newly-enthroned Metropolitan David of Grevena serving a Trisagion (memorial service) for one of his predecessor bishops (I don't remember the name).

Here we close that parenthesis...

We got back from the trip to Grevena around 9:00 or 9:30 pm, and I went straight to a vigil at St. George, the Athonite metochi (a dependency of Gregoriou Monastery) in the center of town. They were doing a vigil that night because the next day (Nov 3) is the Feast of the Translation of St. George’s relics and their deposition in his church in Lydda, so it was like the church’s second patronal feast day.

I am copying (word for word) a conversation I had that night with an American friend via texting:

Me (my phone only texts Greek in capital letters):

ΑΓΡΥΠΝΙΑ ΑΠΟΨΕ ΣΤΟ ΜΕΤΟΧΙ ΤΗΣ ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ, ΑΠΕΝΑΝΤΗ ΑΠ ΤΗΝ ΡΟΤΟΝΤΑ. 8-1 ΝΟΜΙΖΩ

(translation: vigil tonight at the dependency of Gregoriou, across from the Rotonda. 8-1 I think)

My friend texted back in half Greek and half English:

Μολις τωρα ερχομαι στον αγιο δημητριο για την αγρυπνια. Lol. I am willing to switch vigils though. #ecclesiasticalnightlife

(translation: I am right now coming to st demetrios for the vigil. Lol. I am willing to switch vigils though. #ecclesiasticalnightlife)

The # sign (called “hash tag”) is what people write on Twitter, of which things I have no personal experience. But it’s made its way into general English usage (rarely, and mainly among a specific group of people). I thought that was really funny and told him that I would mention it in my blog.

Ecclesiastical night life is something that really doesn’t exist in America.

As one of my other Greek-American friends said on our first Sunday at St. Haralambos, “I love going to church in Greece.”