epiphany - A realization or comprehension of the essence or meaning of something.
Epiphany- A Christian feast (The visiting of the three Kings to Jesus)
The Feast Of Epiphany is a fascinating and fun holiday. It is celebrated with a number of traditions. One is the "swim for the cross". A Catholic humpty-hump blesses a cross and throws it in a body of water, the men swim for it, and the person who touches it first will have good health for the coming year. (Everybody else dies of pneumonia?)
Another tradition is ice-water baptism. Especially in the former Soviet Union and other "Polar" regions. Weather notwithstanding, thousands of Catholics take part in this Epiphany tradition.
There is a cold snap in the Ukraine right now. Minus 30 degrees fahrenheit. Very cold.
These are some seriously stout people. Check out the old lady below. Is that cool or what?
She just walked through icewater while it's -30 degrees outside. A little bit below my tolerance levels for cold. Bbrrrr!
This kind of religious "zealotry" is admirable, in my oh-so-humble opinion. This is beautiful. The collective state of mind for a society of hard working bread and butter people. I also think it's good for you to shock your system once in a while, but wouldn't you be a little worried if that were YOUR grandma? 
This guy is definitely having an Epiphany right about now.
Happy Feast of the Three Kings, Ya'll.
4 comments:
zardoz says:
you should see some northern
greek orthodox communities
who walk in a trance
on HOT COALS ,
and i dont mean a yard or two
15 to 20 yards of burning coals
dont know how they do it
they dont get burned.!
most of them anyways
and there called ( ANASTENARIDES)
Just thought to let you know.
-------------zardoz
I think they have some of those icewater baptisms in Florida during spring break. They involve T-shirts, you know, those shirts in the shape of a cross.
Ha ha ha. Sorting out the weak ones. I wonder if there are any statistics on deaths caused by Epiphany traditions. We have stats for Spain's Running of the Bulls.
I want an Epiphany-type holiday tradition in the U.S.
We all get a day off of work to go dunk in ice-water, then feast our azzes off.
MsAmber
whoa crazy...-30 that is way cold! Those people are insane.
Interesting traditions and holidays all over the world.
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