This post is a bit late - I was hoping for a few good photos to include - but they are all smoke filled and blurry! This is the first time I have done one of these, but my old parish used to have a lovely St. Barbara's Day celebration, so this year I decided to make it happen here! Next year I will be better prepared, but things turned out okay. We had a huge bonfire -
St. Barbara is often commemorated with a bonfire since when she was martyred at the hands of her father, he was struck down by lightning. We had boiled wheat, a traditional Orthodox food often used to
commemorate the departed, and I served vegetarian chili, spiced tea, and
s'mores. We read the story of St. Barbara, and the kids had a blast running around playing with sparklers. Since the eve of her feast day fell on Wednesday this year, we started early in the afternoon, and headed to Vespers at 7:00. It was so meaningful to celebrate together, then go to church and get to hear all the hymns and readings about her (though I am not sure our priest appreciated the smoke smell that clung to all of our clothing!). We ran out of time to
plant wheat - but next year we will do that!
That sounds like a lot of fun! Maybe next year you could invite the entire parish?
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog. I think I remember you coming for a visit a couple months back.
We did invite the families with young children - and had about 25 kids there! Our parish is a bit large to invite everyone - 250 plus members :)
ReplyDeleteFun! I'm jealous of your bonfire. We don't have a good place to have one, so always have the party indoors. A friend did volunteer their country home for a bonfire and maybe we'll take them up on it sometime, but it's seriously cold here in December. I'll blog about our party sometime soon. Well, at least I hope I will.
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful! It sounds like a great time!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog. This is a great idea. It sounds like everyone has a good time.
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