Dekapentaugousto

[pne]

Also known as, the day when Athens is empty since all Greeks are back in their ancestral village visiting their families.

Also known as Mariä Himmelfahrt, complete with Latin genitive, and in English as Dormition of the Theotokos or Assumption of Mary.

Comments

[pieceofpi.livejournal.com]

What if they don't have any families outside of Athens?

[pne.livejournal.com]

Then I guess they stay there.

But most people aren't from Athens originally, and as I understand it, even those who were born there or even whose parents were born there still go to their family's "native" village for Dekapentaugousto - even if they haven't lived there for generations.

I'm not sure whether that's only for those who still have (probably distant) relations living there or if they go even if they no longer have relations there.

[wingflutter.livejournal.com]

yesterday Cora and I were wondering who other than Malta, Italy and Spain make a big deal about August 15, and I guess the answer is Greece. Excluding Japan, coz that's for an entirely different reason!

The Greeks will be remembering this day for another reason in years to come tho :(

[pne.livejournal.com]

yesterday Cora and I were wondering who other than Malta, Italy and Spain make a big deal about August 15, and I guess the answer is Greece.

Yeah, I'll say so.

It's also the name day for probably 30% of all Greek women.

The Greeks will be remembering this day for another reason in years to come tho :(

Yes? *looks up news* You mean the aeroplane crash? That was yesterday, though. Or what am I missing?

[wingflutter.livejournal.com]

yeah, yesterday, but still close enough huh. maybe ppl were travelling to see family? i dont know enough about the passengers etc

[pne.livejournal.com]

I think it was mostly Cypriots, heading for Athens and Prague. But it's quite possible that some of them had relatives in Greece.

[angharad.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I didn't know one spelled Latin 'ae' endings with umlauts in German.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I've no idea how widespread the practice is; I doubt that this spelling convention is used when learning Latin in Germany, and that it's only in fossilised words and phrases that are considered "German" even if they have Latin inflections -- mostly ecclesiastical and mostly genitive.

Other examples of Latin inflections that come to mind are "Jesu Christi", "Johanni = Johannistag"/"Johannis(kraut)", "Petri(kirche)", and "St. Pauli".

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think of the Dormition of the Theotokos as being August 28th, since all the Orthodox Christians I know still cling to the Julian calendar.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Greece may be a bit of a special case in that respect, since the Orthodox Church there switched almost whole-sale to the Gregorian calendar.

There are still a number of palaiimeroloyites (old-Calendar-ites) who think that was all blasphemy, but they're very small in proportion to the ones that follow the Gregorian calendar. (They still calculate Easter by their own rules, though, so it rarely falls on the same day as in the Roman Catholic church.)