September 21, 2005
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September 21st! Prophet Jonah!
Today is Jonah’s name day!
~Happy Name Day Jonah!~
May God Grant you Many Years !!!
Meteora, Greece
Style: Fresco
Jonah the Prophet
September 21
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Comments (12)
Many Years, Jonah!!!!
Many Years Jonah! :love:
Forgive my ignorance, Lisa, but I don’t understand…. is this a birthday? or…??? (sorry)
Good question Sarah! For the Orthodox Christian when we are baptized in our new lives Christ we are named for a saint or prophet. All Orthodox Christians have a name day. The day that their patron saint is remembered. Today is the feast day of Prophet Jonah. So the child or adult whose name day it is has a celebration too! Yes, like a birthday. In some Orthodox Countries your name day is actually more important than your birthday or at least it used to be like that in the past, before the western celebration of birthdays took on such importance. Here are some links to explain more about the saints of the church and what a name day is. http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8044.asp
Name-day. (Gr. Onomastiria or Onomastiki eorti). The tradition of the Orthodox people to celebrate one’s name-day instead of a birthday. Since the Orthodox people are usually named after a saint’s name, all those having the same name celebrate together. Celebration of the name-day is considered to be spiritually important, and the celebrating individual develops special spiritual ties with his Patron Saint and, consequently, with God.
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article9152.asp
http://www.goarch.org/en/Chapel/search.asp
http://www.roca.org/OA/153/153k.htm - What’s in a name?
Hi, thank you.
Happy Name Day and Many Years! That is a great pic!!
Thanks E. and Khouria Michelle and Jennifer. :sunny: E. did you get the connection with the photo and the sea? :fun:
Happy name day! Many years, dear Jonah!!
Ok, so why do they say “many years”??? This is new to me, but interesting…. Do you give gifts on Name Day?
Yes you can give gifts. The way namedays used to be celebrated in this country by Greek Orthodox immigrants and still are in Orthodox countries is that you go to the home of the person whose name day it is. My parents have lots of memories of their homes being filled with guests on name days. The family whose name day it is hosts people all day long that come to visit. In Greece on very popular name days like the feast of St. Nicholas one might have lots of friends to visit that day. My dh , Fr. Christos, gets lots of phone calls on Christmas day , for his name day. We say, “Many years!” As in may “May God grant you Many Years!!” There is also a beautiful song we sing that with this wish. Every language has the song in their language. For instance in Russia and Serbia, also Orthodox Countries, like Greece they say ‘Mnogaya Lyeta’. In Greek we say “”Xronia Polla!” In Englisah “Many Years!” or “May God Grant you Many Years!”
We recently had a thread about this that talked about “Many Years!” It is a common expression that we wish people for lots of happy occassions! Here is that thread.
:sunny:Many Years, Jonah! :sunny:
(Psst, how’d I do?)
LOL! Really well Sarah! :heartbeat:You are getting the hang of it! :)The one major thing I forgot to mention about namedays, is about attending the Liturgy on your name day. The Divine Liturgy is the worship/communion service of the Orthodox Church. In Orthodox countries services for are held every morning , everyday of the week. Everyday certain saints are commemorated. Not too many people are named Jonah so it is a bit of an obscure feast day/name day so the churches here would not have a weekday service. But on big feast days like St. Nicholas (Dec. 6) or St. Basil’s (Jan. 1st.) Most likely the local Orthodox Church would have a service and we would go to church for the feast.