Last Sunday was Gabi’s christening. It was a tiny affair, with her parents only inviting family, the two godmothers and their respective partners, and me. David was not able to attend as he had to run a weekend workshop, but I went anyway.

And I was so glad that I did attend, because it was so an awesome ceremony. Gabi was christened in the Catholic church, and I had always assumed that the ceremonies between the Greek and Catholic were very similar (apart from the language difference), and as a result I had really not been so excited apart it. You see in the Greek Orthodox church, the ceremony is really long. There is a long section where the priest chants the service. Then the mother and godmother go off with the child, strip them down and bring them back to the priest. The priest then literally dunks the baby into the baptismal font three times, completely submerging the baby in water. This happens three times. The baby (who by this time is screaming blue murder) is whisked away by the mother and godmother to be soothed and dressed in the white baptismal outfit. During this time, the priest continues the service. When the baby, mother and godmother are ready, they come back into to the church and finally the godparents make their promises to renounce evil and look after the child, etc. It is a long ceremony, and definitely not one of my favourites.

But the ceremony on Sunday was different. It was actually rather nice. First of all, there were three babies being christened at once (which I still can’t quite get my head around). Then there was a print out of the service, printed on fancy silver cardboard, so that everyone could follow along. The service itself was in English, which after long ancient Greek services was a real treat. The priest told us that as we had all taken time out of our lives to be there to witness the special event we were all sort of godparents of the child we had come to support, and so he encouraged us to respond each time the little pamphlet prompted the godparents to respond. The priest himself had such a nice and gentle way with the children, it was really so lovely to see. He did not dunk the babies into water, but rather held them and leaned them backwards so that he could anoint their foreheads with holy water. The whole thing was over in next to no time, despite the fact that there were three babies being christened. It was just such a nice ceremony.

We then headed back home for lunch. This was the kind of awkward part, as I have never met any of David’s uncles or his aunt, and my word, they were a stand-offish bunch. It was so weird. They don’t have much of a relationship with David any more, so I guess they that they didn’t feel a need to strike up a relationship with me. However, it was cool chatting with David's younger sister, and Keera’s friends (the godmothers and their significant others). We actually had some really cool chats about random topics like Star Wars. It turned into one of those afternoons where you laugh a lot, abut nothing in particular, and just have fun.

Here is a picture of Gabi being christened and one of me holding my honorary niece: