Why I love Orthodox Church

Imagine this: you’re met, meaning you’re half Dutch, half Greek. Now, because of your Greek side you also have been baptised as an orthodox and ofcourse have grown up with both Dutch and Greek habbits and traditions. For the Dutch and the Catholic and Protestant faith Christmas is the biggest celebration, the birth of Christ (which as it seems to be wasn’t even remotely close to the month the Chirst was born but nevermind that). For the Greek though, Easter is the biggest thing. Besided of being the center celebration of the orthodox faith it also about the biggest social event one can imagine. Young and old generations mix, work together, go to church togethere, celebrate together and in general have fun together. Although I am not a follower of the orthodox faith there has always been something about their easter celebration that attracted me, I just enjoy it. So this year again I joined my parents in Brussels to celebrate easter. On friday we go to church and after one heck of a lot a preeching and psalming the body of the Christ is carried around the neighbourhood, followed by the “followers” each holding a candle. On Saturday we celebrate the ressurection of Christ with another mass. This one thankfuly is a lot shorter so kids as well as the younger generations who don’t understand the byzantine psalms or the semi-modern greek preeches can pull through. After this, the “light of faith” is distributed to everyone by passing on the light from candle to candle and this is taken with you to your home where you also light the candles with that light. On Sunday we go on and celebrate again, this time in quite a different manner. A lamb is roasted on a spit, all kinds of superb diches from salads to exotic desserts are prepared and the feast can begin.

This year we celebrated Easter with some good friends of my parents whom since almost 4 months are the proud parents of a beautiful young baby girl called Herina, who, for her very young age, is quite the dancer and party animal. I had great fun that day, everyone did, those Easter celebrations are a few of the very good memories I have of my time(s) in Brussels.

Ohw, and if you wanna know what an orthodox mass sounds like, check out this, this and this sound fragments, that also might explain the ironic meaning of the post title to you As you can hear on the sounds recordings, it really is a social event, the mass, well, it just so happens it is taking place

And ofcourse, let’s not forget the tons and tons of pictures that were taken that day. Unfortunately the CD with the pictures hasn’t reached me yet but as soon as it does you can find them here.

Tah-tah!