All posts by Culture

update, Month, Friends Letters

Arslanoglou Achilleas: GOOD MONTH

MULTICOLORED, EUODIASTO, COMPETITIVE AND HOPEFUL MONTH FOR ALL

May or May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and has 31 days. In the Attic calendar it was the eleventh month of Thargilia, corresponding with the time interval 23 April-May 23, while it was the third month of the ten-month Roman calendar (Greater).

According to Plutarch, this month was dedicated to the God Mercury. Its name is due to the mother of God Mercury the nymph Maia, which was the most beautiful of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione.
In art in the month of May, the Romans represented him as a middle-aged man wearing a broad tunic with large cuffs (like today's dressing) and having on his head the canister full of flowers while at his feet was a peacock (peacock) with open wings.

May is "a month of joy and worship of vegetation", with beliefs and customs of a timeless nature, like the traditional custom with the May Day wreath which decorates the door of the house until 24 June, when it is burned in the fires of Ai-Yiannis.

The great religious feast of May is that of Saints Constantine and Helen (21 May) and the 29th of May is a day off, where "Turkey the City".
THE 1 May has been characterized as an almost universal day of strike (and not a holiday) and is dedicated to workers' claims and struggles. On this day you honor the labor movement and the first major demonstrations that took place 1886 in Chicago with a request for the three eights : eight hours of work, eight entertainment and eight sleep.

In GREECE, his tobacco workers' strike 1936 in Thessaloniki it was painted with blood which was recorded, in the next day's newspapers, with a characteristic photo which showed a mother wailing over her slain child. That photo inspired Yiannis Ritsos to write the "Epitaph": "May Day you hated me / May day I miss you...".

Axileas Arslanoglou's photo.

Church, update, God, Faith, Symbolism

Why do we light candles in church?; – The symbolism and the answer

Γιατί ανάβουμε κερί στην εκκλησία; - Ο συμβολισμός και η απάντηση

Why do we light candles in church?;
– The symbolism and the answer

Why do we light candles in church?; There is special symbolism in lighting it; Questions, to which Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Nikopolis and Preveza gives an answer to APE-MPE, who points out, among others, that the habit of lighting contains profound symbolism and that it is an important movement of man in his search for the divine to communicate with God.

"One of the blessed customs of the faithful when they enter the temple is to take one or more candles, to light them in the certain position (manual) and then to worship the images of Christ, of Panagia and the saint of the temple. This habit, which is perhaps most often done mechanically, contains profound symbolism. Everything that exists or happens in the Holy Temple and in the Worship of our Church hides symbolism to remind us both of the events of our Lord's earthly life and of the believer's obligation not to lose heart, not to be abandoned to the biotic raston, but to awaken spiritually by taking on the spiritual weapons that our Church grants him in the spiritual struggle", emphasizes the pastor of Nikopolis and Preveza.
To the question of what the candle symbolizes, he invokes answers given by the Fathers of the Church. Features, notes:
"The Church Fathers give the answer, to whom we always turn and who give answers to everything and may they have lived centuries ago.
Saint Simeon of Thessaloniki mentions six symbols for the candle and certainly refers to the so-called pure candle, that is, the beeswax. He says the candle symbolizes: a) The purity of our soul, b) The malleability of our soul, which we must shape according to the commandments of the Gospel, c) The fragrance of Divine Grace, which every soul must emit, like the candle has a sweet smell, d) Like real wax, burning, it mixes with the fire and gives them food, so also the soul burned by the Divine Love is gradually led to deification, e) The light of Christ and f) The love and peace with which the believer becomes a bright beacon to others.
Saint Nicodemus the Saint lists six other symbols and reasons for lighting the candle:
1) To glorify God, who is the Light “I am the Light of the world”, (John. 8, 12), 2) To dispel the darkness of the night and drive away the fear that darkness causes, 3) To show the inner joy of our soul, 4) To give honor to the saints of our faith, imitating the Christians of the first centuries, who lit candles at the graves of the martyrs, 5) To symbolize our good works during Kyriakon Loyon “so let your light shine before men” and 6) So that the sins of those we light the candles and those for whom we light them are forgiven".
Next, focuses on the light of the flame and emphasizes that "The candle produces flame and the flame emits light. Light is a dominant element of our worship. We are called to be light because He is the Light. At the pre-sanctified Divine Liturgy, the officiating priest, holding a lighted candle, turns to the faithful and pronounces “Christ's light shines everywhere”. In the sequence of the monk's haircut, the provost gives the priest a lighted candle again, telling him “so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father in heaven”, (Math. e, 16), but also at the end of the Divine Liturgy we sing “we saw the true Light”».
In conclusion, the metropolitan of Nikopolis and Preveza declares: "Christ constantly calls us to become Light with our lives, with our words and with our works.
Therefore, it is not a formal or mechanical act to light the candle, but an important movement of man in search of the Divine to communicate with God".


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update, Month, February, Friends Letters

Arslanoglou Achilleas: GOOD MONTH

HAPPY, HAPPY, CREATIVE, BLESSED, HOPEFUL MONTH
February the second month of the year, with duration 28 days for common years and 29 leap days.
It was originally the twelfth and last month of the Roman calendar but when January became the first month of the calendar, around the 153 e.g., February was established as the second.
With the calendar reform of Julius Caesar, the 45 e.g., February had 29 days the common years and 30 partyou're in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless, the 4 B.C. the emperor Octavian Augustus removed a day from February and added it to August, which was dedicated to him.
Its name comes from the Latin verb februare (sublimate, lustrate), due to the rites of purification and cleansing performed in Rome (February and Feralia), from which the later Apocreos celebrations and Carnival events originate.
According to others, the name February comes from "veins", that is, the underground water that springs up during its duration from the many rains.
In the ancient Attic calendar, February corresponded to the second fortnight of the month of Gamilion and the first fortnight of the month of Anthestirion. During this time in Athens, Theogamia was celebrated (in honor of the marriage of Zeus and Hera) and the Dispensaries (in honor of Dionysus), on the first day of which the jars with the new wine were opened.


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Spiritual memorial service

Spiritual memorial service by the Bar Association of Veria – Praise to an excellent student.

From: http://www.verianet.gr

In a modest and simple ceremony, the established spiritual memorial held every year by the Bar Association of Veria took place.
The ceremony was held in the club's event hall and was well attended, except for the members of the Bar Association, representative of the Venerable Metropolitan of Berea and Nausis, of the general commanding of the 1st Division, of the deputy of Imathia, Frosos Karasarlidou, the mayor of Veria and members of the Board of Directors of the Philoptochos Brotherhood.
The president of the bar association, Fotis Karavasilis was the speaker, who, according to the ritual, read the names of deceased lawyers, notaries and mortgagees.
This was followed by the awarding of praise to the student Georgios Tsiliopoulos, according to the provisions of the bequest of Ekaterini and Anastasios Kappos
Hagiographer, Profession

THE TURKISH PAINTER WHO BECAME…. HAGIOGRAM AND SHARED HIS HAGIOGRAMS THROUGHOUT TURKEY!

Written by Nikos Cheiladakis

At 18 of February 2012, Alaattin Sürmeli passed away, a Turk… hagiographer, (yes indeed), who had caused a sensation throughout Turkey for his wonderful Greek Orthodox hagiographies.
Aladdin Surmeli became known for the first time in 26 September of 2000 when he had declared at the time on a TV show of the Turkish channel, NTV that he is a hagiographer and that he loves his profession which has given another dimension to his life.

Referring to how he became a hagiographer he had then confessed : "Once he had gone to visit the old Christian church of Antakya, (Antioch), a Greek Orthodox Christian priest. This priest was fascinated by a damaged icon and asked me to restore it and make it back to how it was, when the Christian iconographers of the old church had painted it. I decided to restore it and when I finished my work and showed it to the priest he was fascinated by my work. He showed the image to others and after a while other Christians came, (from where ;), and they asked me to paint Christian pictures. My work left them very satisfied, and then I started systematically dealing with hagiography and became a regular hagiographer".

Aladdin Surmeli, as reported by the Turkish media, from an early age he was inclined towards fine arts while reading history and was fascinated by the natural beauty which he had represented in his first works. He was the minion, as it typically states, of the famous Turkish actor, Nejat Uighur. Continuing his confessions he had said : "I believe that it was a divine command to deal with Christian mosaics. For years I had worked in Smyrna as an artist and painter 1967 I had returned disappointed to my homeland, Antakia and I started doing inscriptions, when then the Christian priest visited me to commission me to paint hagiographies. Since then, my whole life has changed radically and I have indulged in icon painting, which I deal exclusively with. I have painted Jesus Christ, Panagia, Per Meriem, (this is how Muslims call the Virgin Mary), as well as scenes from the miracles of Jesus Christ. All my works have surprised the Christians with their successful representation and the faithfulness of the icons I have painted and they constantly assign me new orders for the painting of Christian icons".

As Aladdin Surmeli pointed out, "Hagiography for me is not a simple art, but something more. Hagiography has become my whole life and I can't imagine myself doing anything else. With every image I deal with, first I concentrate on each line I will draw on it. Hagiography is an art that requires special attention and for this reason it needs special effort to perform".

The reputation of this Turkish hagiographer as the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet had written, at 26/9 2000, has spread throughout Turkey and beyond.

NIKOS CHILADAKIS
Journalist-Writer-Turkologist
www.nikosxeiladakis.gr
Journalist- Author- Turkologist, National Issues Greece, Turkey, Greek-Turkish …
Month, November

Happy November month.

GOOD MONTH MY FRIENDS

Let's enjoy the smells and colors of November
and let's hope they will fill us with beautiful feelings and moments of joy…
November is the eleventh month of the Gregorian calendar, he's got 30 days and starts every year on the same day that February and March start (with the exception of leap years). In the Roman calendar, he was ninth in line, as his name indicates (novem=nine) The Romans had dedicated it to Poseidon and celebrated the Poseidonia.
For the ancient Greeks, November was the 5th month of the Attic year and had the name "Maimakterion". This name comes from one of the names of God Zeus who was also called "Maimaktis", i.e. stormy. He was the god of the weather, and mortals held a feast in his honor to secure his favor with prayers, so that the weather is not threatening and dangerous for humans and the winds are not particularly fierce.
This month's featured flower is the chrysanthemum and the lucky stone is the topaz.
The most important farm job of the month, not only for the Greeks but for all the peoples of Meof soy, it's the thawing, i.e. the picking of olives for the production of oil. It starts in November and lasts up to three months in some places.
The feasts of the month include the feast of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, of Saint Philip, of Saint Catherine and Saint Andrew. The biggest, Nevertheless, feast of the month is the Entrance of the Virgin on 21 November.
Archangel Michael is considered as "the cat’ angel par excellence" and for this reason in certain areas, on the eve of his feast day, they brought their shoes inside the house so that the Archangel would not see them and come to take them before their time.
Since ancient times, various highly visible celestial objects have warned people as signs of weather changes. The best known example is the open Pleiades star cluster, better known as Puglia. From the time of Hesiod the setting of the Pleiades immediately after the setting of the Sun, which happens in mid-November, marked and marked the period of the coming of cold and warned the farmers to finish sowing.
The rain of lions, spectacular celestial phenomenon, happens every year around 17 November. Our land, during its orbit around the sun, encounters the particle cloud of Comet Temple-Tuttle. Tiny gram-weight particles hit the earth's atmosphere, they ignite and form a ball of light 2 to 3 meters moving at speed 30 to 60 kilometers (also known as a shooting star).


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