Turkey Part 3 and Religions in Greece: From the old to the new to the strange

First I need to finish off my Turkey experiences for you. I think all I have left to tell you about is the Whirling Dervishes. I went and saw Whirling Dervishes. In short they are Muslim mystic monks, Sufis, who spin around in very tight controlled circles for a religious ceremony. In very broad terms, it is an act of union with God. It was pretty cool to see a ceremony that I have only read about or seen still pictures of. First the msicians played for about 20 minutes then the 4 dervishes came out. They were in black coats that they took off to reveal a completely white outfit with a black hat. As they spun, the skirts (yes men in skirts) rippled around them. I was sitting in the front, so bending down I could see their feet moving around and around in a prescribed pattern in one place. They never got dizzy and stumbled or lost their footing. Absolutely amazing to see. I recommend anybody go see a show, even if all you can see is a small one like the one I saw.

I came back to Greece with no mishaps. I was interested to see that people still dress up for plane flights in Europe. You could not tell the business travelers from the pleasure travelers. I even had the lady sitting beside me wish me a good flight. It was an experience that you don't get much, because people who are vacationing tend to dress very casually and comfortably on planes. I felt like I had been thrown back a few years to a time in planes that I have read about.

This Friday we had a school trip to Brauron and Sounion. I had Prof. Diamant, who I have heard many good things about. He is late 50s if he is a day, and wiry. Apparently he also chain smokes. Upon arrival at Brauron, he led us up a mountain forging a trail through high grass, flowers, bushes, and trees to a high point up a steep cliff where we sat on a rock as he gave us the introductory lecture for the sight. He wanted us to be able to see the topography of the region so we would understand how each ancient event took place. At Brauron is a Temple of Artemis, and many stories surround it. Brauron is situated in a valley, so we sat on this mountain and looked down into that valley to where wars were fought, drama took place, and people lived so many centuries ago. After sliding down the mountain (in some places quite literally sitting and sliding because it was steep) we went over to the temple. Of course we were compelled to do the Bear Dance upon our arrival. At least a modern silly version of it. In ancient times young prepubescent girls would dress like bears and dance in the temple of Artemis. We decided to emulate them.

Then we went to Sounion where we saw the Temple of Poseidon situated on a cliff. It is one of the few temples with no ceremony attached to it. Most likely, people would give statues there to get Poseidon to calm the waves, which are pretty strong as you round the cliff. We can see carved all over the temple names of people from a few hundred years ago who felt the need to leave their mark on the ancient temple. Unfortunately, because of a guard and a rope, we were only able to walk around the temple and not up into it.

This morning I attended a Greek Orthodox service for a paper I am writing for my Orthodox Church class. It was two hours of chanted and sung ancient greek with intermittent modern Greek spoken (the sermon I think) and a few processions. I walked into the church and my first reaction was for my jaw to drop. In some ways it is structured like any church I am used to. It is a square-ish room with pillars along both sides and seeting between the pillars and on the sides. There is an aisle down the middle, and a balcony (but I don't think anybody was up there). The altar was at the front, but it was behind a wall that spanned the entire front of the sanctuary. There was a door way about the width of the altar through which you could see the altar beyond the wall. Unless you were sitting in the middle, though, you would never see anything happening at the altar. The main shocking thing was the colors. Everything was gold. Absolutely everything. The altar cloth, the vestments of the priests, and the walls. Bright gold. There were icons and pictures everywhere all along the walls. Even on the domed and arched ceiling were paintings. I am used to the most ornate part of the church being stained glass windows and flowers at the front, not the walls. It was all I could do to not drop my jaw just looking around. There were low chandeleirs which lit the people well, but left the ceiling in mostly darkness, so the paintings up there were hard to see. For the entire service the cantor, choir, or priests were chanting and singing. Most of the "action" took place at the altar, behind the wall. It was hard to see, but there was a lot of crossing themselves and bowing. At one point I saw them shake a pillow. I have no clue what that was about. The people did a lot of standing and crossing themselves then sitting. Occaisionally the people would join in the singing, but not often.

At the end they had communion. It was not orderly at all. At one point in the chanting everybody just stands up suddenly and masses forward. There was no line but a crowd of people, almost like a mob, around the priests. They were given the wine with a spoon, and then I saw them come back with handfuls of bread. They had multiple huge cut up chunks of bread that they were munching on as they walked back. Most people just walked in right before communion and walked out right after. The service was over within a few minutes of communion.

At this point I ran to the Anglican church I have been attending. I got there halfway through the sermon. Church went as normal, and then after walking out and shaking hands with the priest I went over to the coffee--what would a church service be without a coffee time? I was then talked to by a couple of girls who looked to be in their mid-twenties. This is where the religion in Greece I referred to truly became strange. They started out sounding ok, but it turned weird pretty fast. They talked about God's love and how his love is in everybody's hearts. Then they moved to how no church or religion can give you answers about God. Then they moved to the only way to know anything about God is from within your own heart. God is only within you and only your "experiences" matter. Then they tell me that they go to churches and synagogues to tell people about this second coming of Jesus and this "religion of God" as they called it. Then they asked me if I wanted to convert. I told them I was just fine thank you. Basically they wanted everybody to throw out their beliefs and just base everything on experience. What kind of people go some another religion's place of worship and try to convert them? Do I go to a mosque and say "you are close but you aren't quite there. I know you just finished your Friday prayers but I am going to try to get you to convert here and now to another religion." Somehow I don't think that works very well and is very disrespectful. So I was a bit annoyed.

Now it is time to study for midterms. Tomorrow is Myth and Religion and Tuesday is Orthodox Church. See ya'll.