There was a TV prog some years ago showing a mass baptism in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, at Epiphany. The candidates (seemed to be children and
adolescents, mostly?) waited until the sun touched the water in a huge
square pool at sunrise, then jumped in and splashed about. Much more fun
than Cranmer's 'discreetly and warily' immersing infants.
Orthodox practices and beliefs, including the Coptic church, seem to me a
good source for first-millennium Christian belief. Roman Catholics were the
first Protestants, in the Orthodox view. Epiphany is pretty much up there
with Easter, and Pentecost, apparently. 'Bowsenning' does seem to hark back
to this early stratum of belief.
I realized after sending the first message that what the Russians were doing
yesterday is akin to Jewish 'lustral' bathing (cleansing in response to
ritual impurity) in a natural mikveh, which is a stream, spring, or lake or
pond. The buildings called mikvaot are artificial ones, with special rules.
The River Jordan would have been a natural mikveh, hence Christ's baptism.
Leviticus deals with the circumstances when one might become ritually
unclean. The pool at Addis Ababa was artificial, but if it's fed by a
natural water supply, I think it counts.
I'm working along the lines that such a view of 'living water' as
spiritually cleansing (therefore also potentally healing) was the reason for
siting so many pre-Conquest churches and minsters near streams and springs;
sometimes, even, in the fork of a stream or river and a tributary.
I've come across a connection with Epiphany, as celebration of the start of
Christ's ministry, being linked with 'pagan new year', but it doesn't
coincide properly with anything I can find about Janus, or Saturnalia's
shift from mid-December to the very start of January, and it's clearly not
'Celtic' new year.
Christine
-----Original Message-----
From: WATER TALK - the email discussion list for springs and spas
enthusiasts [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of James
Rattue
Sent: 19 January 2006 22:34
To: Christine Buckley
Subject: Re: Orthodox Epiphany
I was recently told by a friend who'd just returned from Ethiopia doing VSO
that the Epiphany seems to be the great Church festival there, certainly
overshadowing Christmas, though not Easter, surely? There are huge
pilgrimages to important church sites such as Lalibela (not sure of the
spelling without looking it up), bathing in wells or tanks, aspersing with
buckets of holy water and so on - so not so different from the Church in
Russia (though the Ethiopian Copts have always been a bit odd in their
observances).
James
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.14.20/234 - Release Date: 18/01/2006
|