{"id":3536,"date":"2020-04-16T21:44:59","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T00:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=3536"},"modified":"2020-04-16T22:05:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T01:05:58","slug":"before-and-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-beautiful-good-friday-byzantine-chants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/16\/before-and-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-beautiful-good-friday-byzantine-chants\/","title":{"rendered":"Before and during the Covid-19 pandemic: Beautiful good Friday Byzantine chants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/HolyFridayFinal.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3537\" width=\"451\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/HolyFridayFinal.jpg 932w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/HolyFridayFinal-300x130.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/HolyFridayFinal-768x334.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 451px) 85vw, 451px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Tomorrow is the Greek Orthodox Good Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OK, Bambi is not confusing the days here, although she\nalmost called her parents today, thinking it was already Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was funny to hear her spouse clarifying that \u201cw<em>e\nare not Friday yet\u2026 and Good Friday was last week <\/em>?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bambi celebrated Easter last week (with the majority\nof Christians in Canada). Her parents, sisters, and half of her relatives are\ncelebrating this weekend. The other half of the Christian family members celebrated\nlast weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes, the two Catholic and Orthodox Easters co-occur.\nSometimes they do not (one week apart, like this year).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyhow, Bambi loves the Byzantine chants of the Greek\nOrthodox church. They remind her of her happy childhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, this evening, her cousin Elham made her day when she shared the first video below. In it, you can hear\/see her talented second cousin (hello Zeina!) praying, with her choir and kids. They seem to have used a platform like Zoom. How well done, bravo! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"HolyFriday2020\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7eiRFaghq8U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Further below, you can see the same prayer by Father Elias (hello \u201cAbouna\u201d ?!). The latter happens to be Elham\u2019s spouse. According to Bambi, he may have the most powerful voice she has even heard (solid and moving like the sound of a bell).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is somehow moving in these two videos is the contrast between the first and second videos. In the first, everyone is quarantined. The second shows a dynamic church filled to its full capacity. This service traditionally ends with a procession on the streets of Beirut around <em>Saint-Mary<\/em>\u2019s church. After a busy evening, in the early hours of the next day (Holy Saturday before Easter), Abouna flies to Jordan in order to bring the light from the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem. This candle serves to light ALL the little candles of all parishioners of all the churches. Bambi\u2019s parents bring this candle back home to bless their place (a VERY old Christian tradition).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Holy Friday 2019\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fj3K3iEF2Yg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To Father Elias, Bambi would like to say: Thank you\nfor all what you do to your parish. She will say the same to your family too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In three days, you\/we all be greeting each other by\nsaying: \u201c<em>Christ is risen. Truly risen<\/em>! This is how they say Happy Easter\nin the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The resurrection is at the heart of the Christian\nfaith\u2026 In other terms, the joy and hope that Easter brings remains the same, when\nwe have faith in our hearts. Regardless of wars, economic hardships, pandemics,\nor simply being away from loved ones, we celebrate and hope for better days\nahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who believe, nurturing their faith, aspire to feel a renewal of hope in life. Those who do not believe in Jesus story can still just enjoy the beautiful music and the delicious Easter food. Bambi considers herself to be among the lucky ones who enjoy both\u2026 twice per year ?.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maamoul.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3538\" width=\"291\" height=\"219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maamoul.jpg 637w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maamoul-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 291px) 85vw, 291px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow is the Greek Orthodox Good Friday. OK, Bambi is not confusing the days here, although she almost called her parents today, thinking it was already Friday. It was funny to hear her spouse clarifying [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3536"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3542,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536\/revisions\/3542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}