Athos Karistinos, 18, of Tarpon Springs, Florida, retrieved the Epiphany cross from Spring Bayou on Tuesday after Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America cast it into the water, besting 73 other teenage divers before a crowd of thousands. The dive, held annually on January 6 as part of the Epiphany observance, marked the 120th consecutive year the Gulf Coast city has hosted what the Associated Press described as one of the largest such celebrations in the country. According to Greek Orthodox tradition, the cross’s retriever receives a year of blessings.
Tarpon Springs, a city of roughly 25,000 on the Gulf Coast 30 miles north of Tampa, has maintained a distinctive Greek Orthodox identity rooted in a late-19th-century sponge-diving industry that drew Greek immigrants to its waters; the Epiphany celebration at Spring Bayou is its most visible annual expression of that heritage.
Athos Karistinos, 18, of Tarpon Springs emerged from Spring Bayou on Tuesday holding the Epiphany cross, besting 73 other teenage divers to win one of the most enduring religious observances on the American calendar. Thousands of spectators lined the bayou for the event, which marked the 120th consecutive year Tarpon Springs has hosted the celebration.
Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America cast the cross into the water from the bayou’s edge. Before the dive, Sylvia Marakas led the procession of boys from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral to the waterfront, carrying a white dove that she released over the water as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Karistinos was carried by fellow divers and surrounded by friends and family after his retrieval. According to Greek Orthodox tradition, the person who retrieves the cross receives a year of blessings.
The celebration marks Epiphany, which commemorates the manifestation of Jesus to the world. The holiday’s name comes from the Greek word “epiphaneia,” meaning “appearance.” Christians observe it with a range of practices — parades, gift-giving, and the blessing of water — and it is also called the Feast of Epiphany, Three Kings Day, and Theophany. In some traditions it marks the baptism of Jesus; in others, the visit of the Three Magi.
Tarpon Springs, located on the Gulf Coast 30 miles north of Tampa, built its distinctive Greek identity around a sponge-diving industry that drew Greek immigrants to its waters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Those settlers also established restaurants, pastry shops, and markets that have given the city a lasting Mediterranean character. The Associated Press reported the Tarpon Springs Epiphany celebration is one of the largest in the country.