It is the first day of the liturgical year for many Orthodox Christians. In church we sang the Akathist Hymn of Thanksgiving, “Glory to God for All Things.” Following, because our rector had decided for several reasons to do a water blessing today, we continued to sing the hymns and psalms and prayers of that service. The giant urn such as we also use on Theophany was in the middle of the church; afterward we drank some of the water out of punch cups. All this thanksgiving and praise and infilling made for a very rich morning.
While we were singing inside the little old church,
right outside the anemones were in full bloom,
glorifying God in their own lovely way.
Gladsome Lights 
Beautiful word, anemone, beautiful blossoms, creation all over again each day, and each year, starting today.
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There is a comforting rhythm to such rituals that help us to realise the importance of what we have (in this case water) and to renew our attention to the natural world: what it offers and gives – and how we should treat it. The flowers you have focused on here are beautiful.
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I love when we bless water in church! The clergy blessed water on Dormition, as we went to the chapel named after this feast and my sons were hoping to get a good splash, which they did!
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We’re on the Old Calendar here, but our priest was transferred to another church effective yesterday, so there is definitely a feel of it being a new church year anyway. It was also the day of the funeral of Met. Kallistos Ware… British friends of ours actually flew to England for it, but I think it’s likely they knew him personally.
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What beautiful pink anemones. That’s a wonderful, blessed way to begin the new ecclesiastical year.
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It occurred to me that I’m so accustomed to liturgical festival and seasonal changes being on a Sunday, this beautiful ceremony on a Friday raised some questions. What about people who work, and whose schedule doesn’t allow for attendance at church? I suppose it’s a movable feast, and the opportunity will arrive at some point.
Also: I did notice this tweet today in the timeline of a meteorologist I follow, and smiled: “Happy Byzantine New Year. Hope everyone has a great 7531.”
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Hahaha! The calendar the meteorologist is referring to is one I’m not familiar with 😉
Many Orthodox parishes are unable to serve as many services as ours because the clergy have outside jobs as well. When it comes to these commemorations that fall on weekdays, a priest like ours who is full time has a lot of liberty in planning what services to perform, depending on many factors such as what other saints are remembered that day, or what other feast is nearby on the calendar.
September 1 is always Sept 1, so it is a fixed feast, unlike all the feasts that are dated from Easter, which are movable as is Easter. I had to look at this site I found https://www.goarch.org/feasts to clarify that again in my mind. But you are right, if someone can’t participate one year, maybe they will be able to the next. And for all the Great Feasts, and some of the saint commemorations, Vespers or Vigil is served the evening before, which liturgically begins the next day, and often many more people are able to celebrate then than the next morning.
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Japanese Anemones can be very invasive so I have my patch surrounded by concrete paths. They do reluctantly share the space with rhubarb and we keep digging out overly enthusiastic Anemones to keep them in check.
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I saw these blooms in a garden here and the owner didn’t know what they were and neither did I. Thank you! I must plant some!
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Glory indeed.
My white anemones have just starting to sport buds and even that feels early to me (mainly because 100F seems very un-autumnal). Yet, look at all those glorious pink blooms!
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