TARPON SPRINGS, FL – The morning of January 6 was warm and breezy – with temperatures in the mid-60s and a partly sunny sky – at the Spring Bayou, the site of the annual Epiphany Day Cross Dive in Tarpon Springs, nicknamed “Epiphany City” and by this writer, “America’s Greek Island,” reflecting its status as the American city with the highest per capita Greek population.
At approximately 1:47PM Eastern Time, only seconds after Archbishop Demetrios tossed the cross into the bayou, it was retrieved by Alexander Combs, a 17-year-old from Hudson, a community about 16 miles north of the Bayou, who is a parishioner at the St. George Greek Orthodox Church in New Port Richey – a community just north of Tarpon Springs.
Combs shared the play-by-play of his cross retrieval with The National Herald.
“Once the cross was thrown, I was thrown off guard and jumped in the water. I was the first one out over the cross. I went under once and did not find it. I went under again all the way to the bottom and saw it under some dirt and I grabbed it and shot straight up.”
Although the cross dive ended smoothly, it didn’t start out that way. As always, the divers sprung from the pier into the water, to swim to the small fishing boats awaiting, from where they would dive into the water again, in search of the cross thrown by the archbishop. But some of the boys, jockeying for position in one boat, caused it to capsize, throwing all of the divers into the water a little ahead of schedule. When the crowd realized what happened, they burst out in laughter, happy that the boys were safe but amused by the blunder. Those boys then swam to another boat and boarded that one. “I was not in the capsized boats but when I saw it I felt bad for the kids who were in the boat. I then saw them get in the next boat and saw they were safe.”
FROM BOATS TO PLANES
Combs, whose family is from Chios, is a senior at Hudson High School and after graduation plans to attend Valencia College in Orlando. “I want to study to become an air traffic controller,” he said.
This was Combs’ second competition – he entered the event last year. What he did differently this time around was that he concentrated on getting into a boat closer to the pier from where the cross was tossed. As a cross dive champion, Combs may not compete again, though he explained that former champions remain a very important part of future ceremonies.
Combs described the entire event to TNH as “a great time, it was an uplifting event that I nothing can compare to.”
AFTER THE DIVE
Following the initial celebration at the Bayou, the procession returned to the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, just a few blocks away, where bottles of Agiasmo (Holy Water) are distributed to the faithful to take with them and bless their homes. The Church, which is less than a five-minute walk from the Bayou, is on North Pinellas Avenue, which is Tarpon’s portion of Alternate Route 19, one of the county’s busiest thoroughfares. But on Epiphany way, Pinellas Avenue is closed to traffic during the peak times before, during, and after the cross dive.
Following the distribution of the Agiasmo, the celebration continued at the St. Nicholas Cathedral Community Center, just a few blocks south of the Church, along Pinellas Avenue. Live music, food, and drink awaited – the hall so filled that some had to wait over an hour on line for food.
Combs and the other divers were honored for their efforts.
EPIPHANY CITY DAY
A walk along Tarpon Springs’ historic Sponge Docks mid-afternoon, a couple of hours after the dive, lends even more credibility to why Tarpon is called “Epiphany City.” The restaurants, bars, and shops are filled to capacity, which is unusual for a Wednesday afternoon. It is because of the hordes of Greeks and Philhellenes who travel from the surrounding cities and counties for this once-a-year phenomenon. It is really a matter of physics: as ample a space as the Community Center has, it is not large enough to hold the thousands of hungry attendees who want to eat sooner than later.
As one restaurateur scrambled to find additional silverware to accommodate the crowds, he said: “1500 place settings, and I have to make more.” A happy problem, indeed.
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