With due splendor, in the presence of the authorities of the city and a large gathering of people, the Holy Cross was thrown into the Thermaic Gulf in the morning, after the end of the Divine Liturgy and the Great Consecration in the Metropolitan Church of Gregorio Palama. The water consecration ceremony was performed by the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Antimos, and the cross was carried for the 18th time by 39-year-old Michalis Apostolidis from Naples, Thessaloniki.

“Epiphany is a day of inspiration for all, a day of optimism and self-confidence, a day that brings more light to our path, for collective progress, for individual progress, for peace and stability, for a vibrant and proud Greece.” , said the Deputy Minister of the Interior (Macedonia-Thrace) Stavros Kalafatis, wishing “happy birthday to the celebrants, good enlightenment to all.”

“Christianity is celebrating, Greece is celebrating the great feast of the Epiphany, through which Nature is sanctified,” said Deputy Head of the Foreign Affairs Department K.O. SYRIZA on Homogeneity and Cultural and Religious Diplomacy, Yiannis Amanatidis, wishing “a new course for the new year in light and hope” and “happy birthday to all and Greeks everywhere”.

“Today is one of the greatest holidays of Orthodoxy, today our triune God has appeared,” said Hellenic Solution President Kyriakos Velopoulos, while announcing that next week his party will ask all parties in parliament “to agree on a concrete proposal against the Turkish provocation. Let’s agree, let’s pass the law, as they did for casus belli.

“Today is a very important day for Orthodoxy, a day of enlightenment, hope and optimism for Hellenism,” said the regional governor of Central Macedonia, Apostolos Tsitsikostas, and wished that “2023 will be the year when we achieve our goals, we will go further,” and the Deputy Regional Governor of Thessaloniki, Vula Patoulidou, wished everyone divine enlightenment.

“The Day of the Epiphany is a great feast of Orthodoxy, a great feast of Hellenism, a day of enlightenment, hope and joy. I am very optimistic that 2023, which is a year of choices and decisions, will be a bright year, it will be a brilliant year for our city of Thessaloniki and for our country,” said Thessaloniki Mayor Konstantinos Zervas.

Michalis Apostolidis, who caught the cross, said in his statements that “every year goes well when I catch the cross.” “I have been diving since 1996, I didn’t dive twice, once with covid and once when I was a soldier,” he said.

According to APE