The wedding ceremony of the Greek Orthodox Church is an ancient and evocative service by which a man and a woman are united together "In Faith, and in Oneness of Mind, in Truth, and in Love", acknowledging that their love is rooted in God, who is Love itself.
Stefana crowns
The tradition of placing a delicate, white crown on top of the bride and groom’s head was said to originate in the 11th century and is still one of the most important Greek wedding traditions. Greek wedding ceremonies feature an elaborate ritual with the crowns. First, the priest places a crown on both the bride and groom’s head. Then, the Koumbaros, or wedding sponsor, intertwines the crowns three times to symbolize the couple’s union. Finally, the crowns are tied together with a ribbon.
Placing a lump of sugar inside the bride’s glove is said to ensure a sweet life, and adding a gold coin to the inside of her shoe will bring good financial fortune.
Iron is said to ward off evil spirits throughout the day. So the groom should put a piece in his pocket!
Couples invite an odd number of guests and invite an odd number of attendants to stand beside them as odd numbers are considered good luck. Odd numbers cannot be divided!
The number three representing the holy trinity – the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is especially symbolic.
A tradition dating back to ancient times is to spit after offering congratulations or compliments to the couple. Today guests mimic ‘the act’ of spitting – blowing a puff of breath through pursed lips. Due to the rule of threes, ‘spitting ’ three times brings greater luck.
Why you (probably) won’t finish reading this story Vox: “We live in a distracted world, almost certainly the most distracted world in human history. And if you’re part of this circus, you’re drowning in options and gadgets and screens and you’re being pulled in a million directions seemingly all at once. If you spend any time online, you already know this. You’re constantly stalked by advertisers and product peddlers, and your attention is constantly being harvested and sold. That’s the business model of Big Tech.
A new book by the British journalist Johann Hari, called Stolen Focus, takes a close look at what’s happening — and what’s happened — to our collective attention. Hari argues that we’re all becoming lost in our own lives, which feel more and more like a parade of diversions. And it seems to be getting worse and worse every year…”
Following a victory in appeals court, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington obtained the secret Department of Justice memo then-Attorney General Bill Barr pointed to in order to undermine the Mueller Report and justify not charging then-President Donald Trump with obstruction. The memo presents a breathtakingly generous view of the law and facts for Donald Trump. It significantly twists the facts and the law to benefit Donald Trump and does not comport with a serious reading of the law of obstruction of justice or the facts as found by Special Counsel Mueller.
Click here to read the memo.
New York Times Magazine – The untold story of Jones Day’s push to move the American government and courts to the right. “For much of its history, Jones Day was a juggernaut in the field of corporate litigation. A global goliath with more than 40 offices and about 2,500 lawyers, it raked in billions a year in fees from tobacco, opioid, gun and oil companies, among many other giant corporations in need of a state-of-the-art defense. More than most of its competitors, the firm had an army of litigators who had perfected the art of exploiting tiny legal wrinkles, of burying outmatched opponents in paperwork and venue changes and procedural minutiae. But over the past two decades, Jones Day has been building a different kind of legal practice, one dedicated not just to helping Republicans win elections but to helping them achieve their political aims once in office. Chief among those aims was dismantling what Don McGahn — the Jones Day partner who helped run Trump’s campaign and then became his White House counsel — disparagingly referred to as the “administrative state.” To do that, the firm was bringing all the ruthless energy and creativity of corporate law to the political realm…
The power of that revolution, which is spreading to courtrooms and statehouses around the country, is now on vivid display. Even with Democrats controlling the White House and Congress, the Supreme Court has been on a rightward tear. In its most recent term, Trump’s three appointees — the first two handpicked by McGahn and the third, Barrett, plucked by him out of academia for the federal bench — helped erase the constitutional right to abortion, erode the separation of church and state, undermine states’ power to control guns and constrain the authority of federal regulators. Jones Day had a hand in some of those cases, and the firm has telegraphed that it is eyeing additional legal challenges in line with its leaders’ ideology…”
