Baptism

Today is All Saints Day, June 14th and Nik was given his name, Nikolaos Sakkas. Finally the Greek State will recognize him, because they wont put his name on any paperwork until he has been baptized in a church.
Unfortunately the baptism took place right in the middle of when he would normally be taking a nap, so he was not very happy. Also there were a lot of people standing around staring at him and I think that is pretty unnerving for any person any age.
The beautiful and very unique 11th century church with an aisle Ambo.
Greek Orthodox Baptism, I wish I could say what was said but not only did I have the issue of not being able to translate but even if I could Nik was screaming so loud that I really only heard the Amens said by the chorus. It was a very long process, we started at the front of the church and this is where the godparent says the childs name and he gives an oath and denies the devil.
Then we move inside the church and the priest had us kiss "The Gospel" (a large bible covered in silver plating) including baby Nik.

Then we undressed him and we did the blessing in the Baptismal Font that represented the river that Jon the Baptist baptised Jesus Christ in, lots of crosses put on Nik with olive oil and then the godfather rubbed olive oil all over his body while the preist held him and dunked him in the water/olive oil three times (Nik flailing about the whole time).


Then the priest cut his hair in the front, right side, back and left side, in the sign of the cross.

Then we walked around the church and both me and the godfather had to do the cross and kneel 3 times and kiss the different murals and then I had to kneel 3 times and kiss the hand of the godfather.
After the baptism, when I looked at the clock it was 1:45, the service probably lasted one hour and 15minutes, we had a lunch at KokaRoka. We had lamb and potatoes from the oven and Greek salad, tzatziki, and Feta cheese, everyone enjoyed the food.