Venite Prandete

  EPIPHANY TRADITIONS BULGARIAN WATER DANCE The word ‘Epiphany’ means ‘manifestation. The Church, in the Mass, commemorates a triple manifestation of Christ: to the Magi, that is, to the gentiles; in His Baptism, when the Voice from heaven declared: ‘This is my Beloved Son’; and in the miracle of changing the water into wine at Cana. Roman Missal (1962). One of the traditions commemorating the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River is the Orthodox Bulgarian male water dance, where, at the foot of the Balkan Mountains, the men, clad in traditional embroidered shirts, and led by the town’s mayor, wade into the freezing waters of the Tundza River, where, accompanied by bagpipes, (and fortified by homemade plum brandy), they perform the peasant folk dance, the “Mazhko Horo”, stomping on the rocky river bed. They remain in the water for nearly half an hour, pushing away chunks of ice floating on the river. Another ritual sees a priest throw a wooden cross into the river, with the men jump...

  THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGI - TS ELIOT      Mantegna, "Adoration of the Magi", (1500). POOR TOM: The Journey of the Magi is TS Eliot’s story of his conversion – a hard and bitter struggle, where he turned from an agnostic lifestyle to become a high Anglican. Then, like the soldier returning home, he found it difficult to connect with those whose values he had previously accepted without question and who had seemed to be his friends. Indeed, Virginia Woolfe was a friend (sort of), but his conversion was met with outrage by her. She wrote to her sister, Vanessa Bell in 1928: "Then I have had a most shameful and distressing interview with poor dear Tom Eliot who may be called dead to us all from this day forward. He has become an Anglo-Catholic, believes in God and immortality and goes to church. I was really shocked. A corpse would seem to me more credible than he is. I mean, there's something obscene in a living person sitting by the fire and believing in God." Nic...