Epiphany

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou (front, center), Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not pictured) and other officials of the country's political, religious and military leadership attended a special service for the New Year at Athens Metropolitan Cathedral, on Friday.

The rules based on which citizens will celebrate the holiday season and churches will operate were published in the government gazette on Tuesday.

Based on the law, which will be in effect from December 13 to January 7, 2021, gatherings at homes on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day will be limited to a maximum of nine people from two families.

The only disagreements within the Church of Greece regarding the government's limits on services during the festive period due to the coronavirus pandemic is over the way it should respond, as the clergy are all in agreement that the decision must change.

Reactions among bishops in general are reportedly mounting over the government's decision to only allow churches to open on Christmas Day and Epiphany on January 6, with a limit of nine people allowed and up to 25 people in metropolitan cathedrals.

The sanctification of water in an open public space on Epiphany is also banned.

The government on Friday announced limited reopening measures for the Christmas holidays amid pressure from the country's high epidemiological burden.

Retailers will operate in the form of online ordering and collections from the store, without customers entering the stores (known as curbside pick-up or click-and-collect service) from December 13 - January 7.

Participants pose for a photo during the annual bell-bearing tradition in the village of Kali Vrisi in the region of Drama, northern Greece. Every winter, following the Orthodox Church's celebration of the Epiphany, locals in several villages across the Balkans perform such animalistic masquerades and ritual dances to ward off evil spirits and awaken the coming spring.

Church authorities on the northern Aegean island of Thasos have ordered locks to be placed on two chapels after a man opened fire on their icons, depicting Jesus and the Virgin Mary, with an air gun.

The vandalism was discovered on the Epiphany holiday last Monday by shocked worshippers who visited the chapels of Agia Marina and Agios Vasileios outside the island capital of Limena.

In North Macedonia, the Christmas celebrations began on January 5, the night before Christmas Eve, with bonfire nights organised across the country. This one took place in the capital, Skopje. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

Thousands of Orthodox Christian worshippers plunged into the icy waters of rivers and lakes on Monday to retrieve crucifixes tossed by priests in Epiphany ceremonies commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ.

On 6th of January every year, Bulgaria marks St. Jordan's Day (Epiphany). It falls on the twelfth day after Christmas and marks the day Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River by John the Baptist,reports BNT.