Last night, January 4, 2025, Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs, Florida hosted its annual Epiphany Ball, marking the beginning of the city’s Epiphany celebrations. The culmination of the events, a ceremonial cross dive commemorating Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River, will take place on Monday, January 6.
Throughout the banquet, excitement for Monday’s event was palpable, with attendees exchanging memories of their cross-retrieving relatives and their young sons’ summers spent “training” with pool rings for future dives. Commemorative books featured well wishes for this year’s divers, congratulations to past cross retrievers, and gratitude for those who have contributed to the community, including His Eminence Metropolitan Sevastianos of Atlanta, former Proistamenos of the city’s cathedral; the Paskalakis family, which has crafted the dive’s cross for three generations; and the crew of the “Elpis,” the first sponge boat to dock in Tarpon Springs on June 18, 1905.
Welcomed with great applause, the newly-elected Metropolitan expressed his joy at returning to the city, remarking, “It’s like I never left…I think I left my heart back in Tarpon Springs.” Conveying his paternal pride in the city and its century-old Epiphany traditions, His Eminence described the dive as “not only big in numbers…but big in the hearts of the people.”
After offering the event’s opening invocation, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America conveyed his best wishes for Metropolitan Sevastianos’s episcopacy, highlighting that his “Archpastoral wisdom and prudent Church administration have already effected tremendous benefits for the Greek Orthodox People of the Metropolis of Atlanta” and that his “future Archpastoral ministry will be a special blessing for all the faithful.”
Alongside the Archbishop and Metropolitan, the dinner’s honored guests included the Honorable Minister Stefanos Gkekas, Ministry of Maritime Affairs; Maira Miroyiani, Secretary General of Foreign Ministry of Greece for Greeks Living Abroad; Honorable State Senator Leonidas Raptakis; the Honorable Panagiotis Koulias, Mayor of Tarpon Springs; AHEPA Supreme President Savas Tsivicos; Daughters of Penelope Grand President Margaret Dritsas; Nikitas Manias, Archon Deputatos and Parish Council Past President, alongside his wife Mrs. Aspasia Manias; Rev. Protopresbyter Athanasios C. Haros, Dean of St. Nicholas Cathedral; and Rev. Theofanis K. Makris.
Accompanied by the band Endasi, the night concluded with Greek folk dancing, music, and fellowship, a joyful commencement of Tarpon Springs’s 119th Epiphany celebration.
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The feast of Epiphany, or Theophany (meaning “appearance of God”), celebrates Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River by St. John the Baptist. As the waters of the Jordan were blessed by Christ’s presence, Orthodox Christians observe Epiphany with the sanctification of the waters, receiving holy water and blessing the waters of the rivers, lakes, or seas near their parishes.
For over a century, the St. Nicholas community and the wider Tampa Bay region have commemorated Christ’s baptism with a ceremonial cross dive, widely considered the largest such dive outside of Greece. Participation in the dive often functions as a coming-of-age for young men in the community, and retrieval of the cross is considered a great blessing. Watch a documentary about the tradition here.
Photo: Dimitrios Panagos/Orthodox Observer.
