Monthly Archives: April 2015

A week after all the public holidays, Greek Australians will be celebrating Easter. Should the dates be the same?

While Greek Australians enjoyed the long weekend last week, they weren’t stopping to celebrate Easter.

Greek Orthodox Easter this year has fallen a week later, meaning thousands of Greeks won’t have the option of the Friday and Monday off.

It’s one of the most frustrating aspects of trying to celebrate Orthodox Easter. Having time to visit church, cook and organise Easter Sunday events is much harder when the public holidays aren’t in synch.

Neos Kosmos asked our readers whether they would prefer Greek Easter fell on the same dates as Catholic Easter every year, but surprisingly, more preferred the dates stay as is.

Of the 252 voters, 56 per cent of voters felt things should be left unchanged, while 44 per cent wanted Easter to coincide with the public holidays and Catholic Easter.

Why is Greek Easter on different dates?

There is no easy answer as to why and how Greek Easter dates are worked out.

North Altona parish priest of the Dormition of Our Lady, Reverend George Frangos says he fields requests almost daily for why our dates are different.

He admits that the reason isn’t very easy to explain.

“There is no short answer to that question,” he tells Neos Kosmos.

“There’s a number of contributing factors.”

The rules were decided at the first ecumenical council in 325 AD, where the church finally came together as a united front to discuss more permanent Easter date rules.

“What they determined at that ecumenical council was that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday that follows the first full moon after the vernal equinox (which is the beginning of spring which is always March 21),” Rev Frangos says.

“If the full moon happens to fall on the Sunday, Pascha is observed on the following Sunday. That’s something similar to what we’ve experienced this year.”

The rules don’t stop there.

“It was also determined that Easter should always be on a Sunday and that Easter should not be celebrated before or with Jewish Passover,” Rev Frangos says.

“Last week being Jewish Passover, that’s also why we’re celebrating a week after.”

So, you can understand why more often than not, Greek Easter falls outside of Catholic Easter.

Easter will coincide again in two years, when Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday is celebrated on April 16, the same for Catholics.

Next year, the dates will be more than a month apart, with Catholic Easter being celebrated on March 27, and Greek Easter on May 1.

source:Neos Kosmos

Το πτηνό, κατάμαυρο εκτός από μια τούφα άσπρων φτερών στο πίσω μέρος, εντοπίστηκε να τσιμπολογά στη μεγαλύτερη λίμνη της Κύπρου ανάμεσα σε άλλα φλαμίνγκο με συμβατικό χρωματισμό.

Το πιθανότερο είναι ότι πρόκειται για σπάνια περίπτωση μελανισμού, μια πάθηση που οδηγεί σε υπερβολική παραγωγή της χρωστικής μελανίνης.

«Είναι πολύ, πολύ σπάνιο να παρατηρήσει κανείς κάτι τέτοιο […] Βασικά είναι το αντίθετο του αλφισμού [αλμπινισμού]» δήλωσε στο Reuters ο Παντελής Χαριλάου, επικεφαλής της περιβαλλοντικής υπηρεσίας στην Κυρίαρχη Βρετανική Βάση της Δεκέλειας, στην οποία υπάγεται η προστατευόμενη περιοχή της Αλυκής.

«Από ό,τι έχω δει στο Διαδίκτυο, μαύρο φλαμίνγκο έχει παρατηρηθεί μόνο μία φορά στο παρελθόν στο Ισραήλ» είπε. Άλλοι ειδικοί εκτίμησαν ότι πρόκειται για το ίδιο φλαμίνγκο που εθεάθη στο Ισραήλ το 2014, προσθέτει το Reuters.

Ωστόσο ο Μάρτιν Χέλικαρ του Πτηνολογικού Συνδέσμου Κύπρου είπε στο Associated Press ότι τα μαύρα φλαμίνγκο δεν είναι και τόσο σπάνια σε διεθνές επίπεδο, αν και είναι η πρώτη φορά, τουλάχιστον τα τελευταία χρόνια, που ένα από αυτά εντοπίζεται στην Κύπρο.

Μέχρι και 20.000 φλαμίνγκο κάνουν στάση κάθε χρόνο στην Αλυκή καθώς μεταναστεύουν από το νότο πίσω στην Τουρκία και άλλες χώρες.

Το μεγάλο φλαμίνγκο, ή φοινικόπτερος ο ρόδινος (Phoenicopterus roseus), έχει άσπρο φτέρωμα στην ενήλικη ζωή του, βάφεται όμως ροζ έως κατακκόκινο από τα καροτενοειδή που προσλαμβάνει με την τροφή του.

Πηγή:in.gr

What would you do with 23,000 square kilometres of Australian land? World’s largest cattle station is on the market… and it’s the same size as ISRAEL!

• The world’s largest cattle station is for sale in Anna Creek South Australia 
• It covers a huge 23,000 square kilometres and includes original stock
• S.Kidman and Co. are selling another 10 cattle farms across Australia
• In total, they cover 100,000 square kilometres and have 155,000 cattle

The world’s largest cattle station is for sale, and it’s larger than Israel.

According to the ABC, the largest of the stations is Anna Creek Station in South Australia which covers an enormous 23,000 square kilometres.

The eleven cattle farms cover over 100,000 square kilometres and are being sold by the family business S. Kidman and Co.

The world’s largest cattle station is for sale in Anna Creek South Australia and it’s bigger than Israel

It covers a huge 23,000 square kilometres and includes original stock and equipment

All of the farms include the original equipment as well as the stock which is a beneficial deal with the 11 properties currently have 155,000 branded cattle with 30,000 more calves on the way.

Other stations for sale in Queensland include Durham Downs, Durrie, Glengyle, Morney Plains, Naryilco and Rockybank.

Western Australia offers Innamincka, Macumba and Tungali in South Australia; Helen Springs in the Northern Territory and Ruby Plains.

‘This is a world class asset of international significance,’ rural valuer from Colliers International, Alex Thamm said.

 S. Kidman and Co are a family business with a headquarters is in Adelaide and have employed 170 staff

 In total, the stations cover 100,000 square kilometres and have 155,000 cattle between them

‘With cattle prices, our trade agreements with Asia and the low Australian dollar, it is a very good time to be selling the Kidman business.’

Mr Thamm explains that an offer like this is extremely rare, especially since the business has been kept through generations of the same family.

‘To offer this property, walk-in walk-out inclusive of the cattle, plant and equipment, and the business generally, is a good move in the market place,’ he said.

S. Kidman and Co’s headquarters is in Adelaide and have employed 170 staff.

The business produces 15,000 tonnes of beef a year which makes up 1.3 percent of Australia’s exports.

The sale is being handled by Ernst and Young Adelaide.

source:dailymail.co.uk

In case you didn’t know. Actress/Musician/Producer Rita Wilson is a proud Greek-American and married to Tom Hanks.

Hanks joined the Greek Orthodox Church when he married his wife Rita Wilson in 1988 and has since been an avid member. The very successful and grounded couple have 4 children and attend the beautiful St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles. Tom and his family are well-known for attending all the Orthodox Holy Week services.

Tom Hanks has been reported to appear on posters promoting Orthodox Christianity in Russia and neighboring states alongside prominent local cultural and sports figures. The Russian Orthodox youth movement Soboryane said it would launch a massive poster campaign during a missionary event entitled “My Pravoslavnye” (“We Are Orthodox Christians”) back in October 13 and 14, 2012 in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

A Russian poster featuring Hanks has a quote taken from an interview he gave to Russian newspaper Argumenty I Fakty back in 2009.

“I realize how important and beautiful it is to have the opportunity to go to church and reflect on important questions that Orthodox Christianity asks you and answers it offers” it reads translated in English.

Rita Wilson has spoken about her Greek roots and Orthodox faith candidly in various interviews. Rita has also written a few great articles on Greek Orthodox Easter:

“Here are some of the things that non-Greeks may not know about Greek Easter:

We don’t do bunnies. We don’t do chocolate. We don’t do pastels. We do do lamb, sweet cookies, and deep red. The lamb is roasted and not chocolate, the sweet cookies are called Koulourakia and are twisted like a braid, and our Easter eggs are dyed one color only: blood red.” 

There is no Easter Egg hunt. There is a game in which you crack your red egg against someone else’s red egg hoping to have the strongest egg, which would indicate you getting a lot of good luck.

Holy Week, for a Greek Orthodox, means you clear your calendar, you don’t make plans for that week at all because you will be in church every day, and you fast. Last year, in addition to not eating red meat and dairy before communion, my family also gave up sodas for the 40-day Lenten period…

No matter where I find my self in the world I never miss Easter, or as we call it, Pascha. I have celebrated in Paris, London, New York City, Los Angeles, and in Salinas, California at a small humble church that was pure and simple…” – Rita Wilson on Greek Easter.

source:greekgateway.com