St. George's Day in Kyparissi, Lakonias -- better luck next year!

Yes, St. George's Day is normally celebrated on April 23.  But because Easter came after that‎, it was celebrated today (The Second Day of Easter). And tomorrow is officially May Day. Sweet!

And normally here in Kyparissi, the local priest is taken by boat to tiny St. George's church, about a 30 minute walk from the village. I was determined to hitch a boat ride to celebrate my Papou/Kyparissioti George Sarris' nameday -- family facts I foist on anyone here who will listen -- and then walk back. All went well at first, as the priest and‎ psalty (Mattina, a local nun) were loaded onto the boat along with all their accoutrements for the first run. ‎I was pretty excited.

Just as the party of four -- did I mention the boatman George's mom? -- made shore, down came the rain. They quickly borrowed the little church's antique St. George icon ‎and turned back. Services were then held in Aghia Triada, one of Kyparissi's 3 churches. About 20 minutes later, the sun came out. Better luck next year!

NOTE: Finally made contact with Mihalis Papapavlou, nephew of George and Pete Pappas (and cousin of Andy Pappas). He lives in a house across from my hotel, where I stayed in 1974 on a visit with my Uncle Pete and Thea Faith -- when Kyparissi still had no electricity and no road. In those days you came by boat...and we left by a caiqui driven by Barba Ioannis Zafeiris, father of today's boatman. Mihalis lamented having lost track of a paper his father left behind outlining their family tree. He thinks there is a connection betwen the Papapavlou and Sarris families. I need to ask his brother Nick, who got away back to Athens before I could nab him. Shortly, Georgia Adams (from Stockton, Calif) will be arriving here, and we can sit around pondering our relative family trees together -- and maybe even connect the Sarris and Vasiliou families. Who knows?

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.